Exxon Looks To Double Earnings To $31 Billion By 2025

ExxonMobil aims to more than double its earnings to $31 billion by 2025 at today’s oil prices, with an aggressive growth strategy that includes double-digit rates of return in all business segments, the U.S. supermajor said on Wednesday in its annual analyst meeting.

Last year, Exxon booked an adjusted profit of $15 billion, which excluded the impact of U.S. tax reform and impairments.

Exxon also targets to more than double its cash flow from operations by 2025.

In the upstream, Exxon identified the Permian and offshore Guyana as the key growth drivers. Earnings in the upstream are projected to increase via low-cost-of-supply investments in U.S. tight oil, deepwater, and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Exxon plans to raise its production in the Permian five-fold and to start up 25 projects worldwide. Those startups will add volumes of more than 1 million oil-equivalent barrels per day.

Growth from new and existing projects is expected to increase Exxon’s production from 4 million oil-equivalent barrels per day to about 5 million oil-equivalent barrels per day.

In the downstream, Exxon plans to double earnings by 2025 by upgrading its product slate with investments at refineries in Baytown and Beaumont in Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as well as in Rotterdam, Antwerp, Singapore, and Fawley in the UK.

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In chemicals, Exxon plans to grow its manufacturing capacity in North America and Asia Pacific by about 40 percent by 2025, partly by adding 13 new facilities, including two steam crackers in the United States.

“Our existing business and plans for growth are robust to a wide range of price environments, allowing us to maintain a growing dividend and a strong balance sheet while returning excess cash to our shareholders,” Exxon’s chairman and chief executive officer Darren W. Woods said.

While addressing some of the investor concerns with the aggressive growth plan, Exxon did not mention share buyback plans, unlike Chevron, which said yesterday that it would expect to be in a position to resume share repurchases as it generates surplus cash.

After Exxon announced the plan, its shares were down 3.05 percent at 2:00 p.m. EST on the NYSE on Wednesday.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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