Guyana listed as key driver of growth as ExxonMobil pushes to double earnings

ExxonMobil today outlined an aggressive growth strategy to double earnings and cash flow from operations by 2025 at the current oil prices.

In a statement from the company, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Darren W. Woods said, “We’ve got the best portfolio of high-quality, high-return investment opportunities that we’ve seen in two decades.”

He was at the time addressing the company’s annual meeting of investment analysts at the New York Stock Exchange.

“Our plan takes full advantage of the company’s unique strengths and financial capabilities, using innovation, technology and integration to drive long-term shareholder value and industry-leading returns,” he added.

The company listed Guyana as one of the key drivers of growth as exploration success has added 3.2 billion gross oil equivalent barrels of recoverable resource, and plans are in place for development and further exploration.

Growth plans include steps to increase earnings by more than 100 percent – to $31 billion by 2025 at 2017 prices – from last year’s adjusted profit of $15 billion, which excluded the impact of U.S. tax reform and impairments, ExxonMobil said.

According to the Chairman, plan projects double-digit rates of return in all three segments of ExxonMobil’s business – upstream, downstream and chemical – which are all three world-class businesses in their own right.

In the upstream, the company expects to significantly increase earnings through a number of growth initiatives involving low-cost-of-supply investments in U.S. tight oil, deepwater and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Growth coming online from new and existing projects is expected to increase production from 4 million oil-equivalent barrels per day to about 5 million.

The company plans to increase tight-oil production five-fold from the U.S. Permian Basin and start up 25 projects worldwide. Those startups will add volumes of more than 1 million oil-equivalent barrels per day. In LNG, the company expects to bring on new production to meet a projected increase in global demand.

In 2017 alone, the company added 10 billion oil-equivalent barrels to its resource base in locations including the Permian, Guyana, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and Brazil.