Exxon to invest $20 billion on US Gulf refining projects
Exxon CEO Darren Woods attended the CERAWeek 2017 conference in Houston. CERAWeek Twitter photo.
Proposed Exxon investments over 10-year period
As part of Exxon’s Growing the Gulf initiative, the company says it is planning to spend $20 billion over the next ten years to expand its manufacturing capacity along the US Golf Coast.
Exxon chairman and CEO Darren Woods says with the expansion, the company says it is taking advantage of the American energy revolution.
During a keynote speech at the CERAWeek 2017 conference, Woods said the projects are at 11 proposed and existing sites. Exxon says it is expecting to generate thousands of high-paying jobs and $20 billion in increased economic activity in Texas and Louisiana.
“The United States is a leading producer of oil and natural gas, which is incentivizing U.S. manufacturing to invest and grow,” said Woods. “We are using new, abundant domestic energy supplies to provide products to the world at a competitive advantage resulting from lower costs and abundant raw materials. In this way, an upstream technology breakthrough has led to a downstream manufacturing renaissance.”
As part of the company’s Growing the Gulf expansion program, Exxon is investing in refining and chemical-manufacturing projects in the US Gulf Coast region to expand manufacturing and export capacity.
Exxon is proposing 11 major chemical, refining, lubricant and LNG projects along the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
Investments in the programs began in 2013 and are expected to continue through to at least 2022.
Woods says “All told, we expect these 11 projects to create over 45,000 jobs. Many of these are high-skilled, high-paying jobs averaging about $100,000 a year. And these jobs will have a multiplier effect, creating many more jobs in the communities that service these new investments.”
The American Chemistry Council says chemical manufacturing is one of America’s top exporting industries, accounting for almost 14 per cent of overall US exports in 2015. Exports of specific chemicals linked to shale gas are projected to reach $123 billion by 2030.
“These projects are export machines, generating products that high-growth nations need to support larger populations with higher standards of living,” Woods said. “Those overseas markets are the motivation behind our investments. The supply is here; the demand is there. We want to keep connecting those dots.”
Most of Exxon’s planned new chemical capacity investment in the Gulf region is targeted toward export markets in Asia and elsewhere.
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