埃克森美孚的前身标准石油公司于 1928 年首次跻身道琼斯工业平均指数 30 家蓝筹公司之列。到 2007 年，这家化石燃料巨头达到顶峰，成为全球任何行业中最大的上市公司。市值超过5000亿美元。

但随后出现了大衰退、科技繁荣、能源转型，最后是大流行。谷底似乎已经崩塌，埃克森美孚在 2020 年被毫不客气地从道琼斯指数中剔除，市值仅为“相对而言”1780 亿美元。

但随后出现了疫苗和需求复苏、乌克兰战争以及 2022 年利润破纪录的 560 亿美元。现在，德克萨斯巨头的市值再次逼近 5000 亿美元，再次轻松成为最大投资者——世界上拥有能源公司。

发达国家似乎再次认识到石油和天然气的价值，或者至少是必要性，而埃克森美孚处于前沿和中心。

通过收购 XTO Energy 和巴斯家族控股，埃克森美孚已将自己转变为页岩油巨头，尤其是在蓬勃发展的二叠纪盆地。该公司成为南美洲的探索先驱，将小小的圭亚那变成了全球石油版图的重要组成部分。 

尽管出于政治原因退出俄罗斯，并且在巴西看到的结果有些令人失望，但埃克森美孚仍处于上升轨道，目标是到 2027 年，二叠纪盆地产量达到 1 MMboe/d，圭亚那产量达到 1.2 MMboe/d。

董事长兼首席执行官达伦·伍兹 (Darren Woods) 是一名在埃克森美孚工作了 30 年的资深人士，也是德克萨斯 A&M 大学的校友，他加入了炼油业务。因此，他看到了整个价值链，并优先考虑埃克森美孚发展海湾计划，以促进德克萨斯州和路易斯安那州墨西哥湾沿岸的管道、石化、炼油和液化天然气的增长。贝敦 (Baytown) 和巴吞鲁日 (Baton Rouge) 综合设施进行了重大化学品和塑料扩建，科珀斯克里斯蒂 (Corpus Christi) 附近新建了一个石化园区，博蒙特 (Beaumont) 实现了历史性的炼油增长，并建设了 Golden Pass 液化天然气公司 (Golden Pass LNG)。

二叠纪盆地的增长有助于促进下游扩张，如果埃克森美孚与米德兰盆地顶级钻探公司先锋自然资源公司(Pioneer Natural Resources)达成长期合作协议，这笔交易很容易超过700亿美元，那么西德克萨斯州的足迹可能会迅速扩大。

埃克森美孚现在正致力于能源转型——除了风能和太阳能之外，还包括碳捕获、氢、可再生柴油等。

哈特能源编辑总监乔丹·布鲁姆接受了伍兹的独家采访，讨论了所有的成功和挑战。这次采访是在 4 月中旬先锋公司的投机新闻发布之前进行的，埃克森美孚拒绝对此进行讨论。 

Jordan Blum：总体而言，埃克森美孚如何越来越关注北美和南美，特别是考虑到全球需求的增长、从俄罗斯撤军以及欧洲税收担忧？

达伦·伍兹：这就是我们投资组合中的机会最具吸引力和最具竞争力的地方，因此这就是我们重点关注的地方。我的期望是，随着时间的推移，这种情况会根据机会的出现而发生变化。我们继续放眼世界各地。我们这个行业的好处在于它是相互联系的。这是一个非常有效的市场，所以我们会去哪里有资源，哪里可以带来竞争优势并让自己脱颖而出。 

因此，我们的方法将相当多样化。实际上，从风险管理的角度来看，考虑到与政府相关的一些不确定性以及政府如何随时间变化，拥有一个不依赖于任何一个地方的投资组合来取得成功是一个很好的策略，我认为事实证明这是正确的以及在俄罗斯被没收的资产。如果你看看我们正在做的所有其他事情的计划中的规模（34 亿美元的减值费用），那么公司当然能够解决这个问题。

JB：在北美，显然，二叠纪是王者。埃克森美孚大约是二叠纪盆地排名前五的生产商，也是一个非常活跃的钻探商。二叠纪目前的重要性是什么，以及生产目标和目标是什么？

DW：我们这个行业以及我们作为石油和天然气生产公司的一个关键成功因素是确保从供应成本的角度来看，我们处于较低的成本左侧供给曲线。因此，当我们经历这个周期时，无论价格有多低，都会有一个价格制定者的生产成本比我们更高，这可以为您提供有保证的利润。 
在二叠纪，几年前我们用棒球比喻来使用这个短语：小球。而且，当我们第一次收购 XTO 并参与其中时，我们有点继续玩这个短游戏。但作为一家大公司，我们是长球击球手。因此，我们挑战自己来定义，“二叠纪的长传比赛是什么样的？”在二叠纪，你知道资源在哪里。这不是出去寻找资源的问题。这实际上是一个问题，如何最有效地提取其中的大部分内容？这是二叠纪的巨大挑战。

因此，我们将其视为制造问题来解决，并提高效率和效益，并将技术在二叠纪发挥作用，以最大限度地提高采收率。我们仍在这段旅程中。但我们在将这种新方法引入二叠纪盆地方面所做的工作推动了我们的业绩在行业中处于领先地位，并使我们的供应成本远低于 40 美元/桶，从而使其具有弹性。因此，它是产品组合的关键部分，我们认为我们带来了一些尚未完全实现的独特优势。所以，我看到二叠纪有很多好处。

JB：我知道你们在自动化钻机方面做得更多，并且你们有 1 MMboe/d 的生产目标，但是人们是否非常担心钻井库存短缺和核心区域的钻探？

DW： 当我们思考我们想要在这里采取的方法时，我会回顾一下。当时，我想说，更广泛的行业非常关注高初始生产率，因此他们正在挖掘最佳点并提高生产率。事实上，我们在考虑这个问题时表示，我们想做的是最大限度地恢复。这是 NPV（净现值）的正确答案。我们没有专注于最佳点并获得较高的初始生产率，而是专注于最大限度地提高回收率，这导致了我们一直在致力于并持续优化的立方体开发。

其目的是以最大限度地提高完全采收率的方式进行钻探，因此我们没有走上最佳点、高生产率的道路。我们没有看到像其他许多人那样追求最好的挑战。可以这么说，当你达到最佳状态时，你就会从系统中消耗能量，因此恢复变得越来越困难。我认为我们避免了很多人正在谈论的问题。我们有相当深的油井库存，所以我认为我们对现有的计划感到非常满意。

顺便说一句，我们并没有真正设定目标。我们制定计划。在我的期望中，我们将实现这些计划（笑）。在我的组织中，他们明白这一点。所以，我们有一个非常好的计划，我们一直在坚持不懈地实施。因此，我非常有信心到 2027 年我们将达到 1 MMboe/d。

JB：我知道对于每个从外部来看的人来说这并不是那么明显，但是您能详细说明一下二叠纪盆地如何促进整个价值链的增长吗？ 

DW：是的，我们有很多事情要做。如果你纵观我们的业务，在等式的石油方面，这显然是一个消耗性业务。需求不断增长，资源不断枯竭，因此，确保我们的投资是为了确实抵消资源消耗，然后增加总产量，这是一个巨大的挑战，我们在这方面做得相当成功最近。 

如果你看看化工行业，就会发现这是一个不断增长的行业。那里的挑战不是消耗资源，而是发展市场、保持市场地位以及利用我们的高性能产品进行更深入的渗透。你必须继续投资这个领域。 
然后，在炼油业务中，重点不再是增长，而是不断发展生产概况和产量模式，以满足不断变化的需求和产品组合，即更高价值的产品和低碳产品。 

当我们纵观所有这些时，美国墨西哥湾沿岸拥有上述所有元素。当我们寻找那里的机会时，我们看到了将所有这些联系起来的很多协同作用。了解我们所输送的原油的质量，并在通过管道运输原油时保持该质量，并将其输送到我们的炼油厂，并考虑到该质量使我们能够优化运营。我们的工厂变得更加高效、产量更高，运行更加稳定。我们规模庞大的优势之一是您可以利用大量现有的基础设施和能力。因此，与世界其他地方的草根工厂相比，它有助于我们进行增量投资。 

JB：同样，随着宏观需求的增加，液化天然气对于埃克森美孚的 Golden Pass 液化天然气和其他潜在项目变得有多重要？

DW：自从我担任这份工作以来（2017 年 1 月），我们就认为 Golden Pass LNG 将成为其中的重要组成部分。我们从未动摇过这个理念。我们觉得这是我们产品组合的合理延伸。我们的观点是液化天然气市场将变得更大、更深，这将带来更多的贸易机会。因此，黄金通行证的机会确实让我们能够进入一个我们认为快速增长的市场，该市场具有更多的流动性和更多的吨位从不同地区流动。我们还相信美国将成为边际供应来源，因此在边际生产层拥有优势的液化天然气设施给了我们建设这一设施的机会。所以，我们坚持了下来。即使我们经历了大流行，这也是我们没有暂停的少数项目之一，因为我们认识到这是必要的。

液化天然气面临的一大挑战是产量相当大，因此会出现真正紧张的时期，我们去年确实看到了这一点。然后，我们将在未来的某个时刻出现大量供应，并且市场供应过剩，市场变得疲软。我们的策略不是试图计算这些周期的时间，而是确保我们构建的产品能够适应这些周期的底部。 

JB：转向低碳解决方案业务，您并没有专门针对可再生能源做大量工作，但您在更广泛的能源转型方面做了很多工作。经历了一些快速的打击：贝敦的低碳氢设施、先进的塑料回收中心、与三菱的碳捕获合作伙伴关系、与加拿大帝国石油公司的可再生柴油等等。

德国之声：让我从您的观察开始，我们不会进入可再生能源领域。当人们谈论我们是一家能源公司时，他们的误解之一是发电。嗯，我们不从事发电业务。我们不从事电子业务。我们从事分子转化业务。我们研究了风能和太阳能，以及进入电子行业是否有意义。但我们在该领域没有特殊的能力。如果我们不能为该市场带来优势，那为什么还要追求它呢？其他人也能做到，和我们一样好。如果他们需要钱，我们可以写支票。如果你看看分子转化，就会发现 140 年来我们一直有效地发现氢和碳分子并将其转化为世界需要的产品。如果您想到我们为汽油车或柴油卡车提供动力，我们生产人们每天使用的产品。我不认为我可以在不接触我们化工厂生产的某些产品的情况下度过一个小时。这就是分子转变的全部内容。 

那么我们关注的焦点是什么？碳捕获和储存。这就是捕获 CO ₂分子并将其运输并储存在地下，并利用我们对地下的了解来有效地做到这一点。
氢是同样的东西。它利用我们的项目能力、技术和合作伙伴关系来开发氢气。可再生柴油也是同样的事情。这些只是不同类型的氢键和碳键。

因此，我们的核心能力和能力之间存在协同效应，这就是我们进行投资的地方。我们使用的标准与我们在基础业务中使用的标准完全相同，即首先也是最重要的，它必须产生回报。归根结底，我们有责任为股东创造回报。

JB：其中一些低碳企业本身就是大型项目？

德国之声：当然。从大多数定义来看，我们的 Baytown 氢项目被认为是一个耗资 70 亿美元的大型项目。 

JB：稍微向南一点，圭亚那进展如何？公告发布的速度有所放缓，但新发现仍在不断涌现。现在很难低估圭亚那对埃克森美孚的重要性吗？

德国之声：正如[赫斯公司首席执行官]约翰·赫斯所说，这是过去十年来最大的发现之一。因此，我认为这对世界很重要，显然对圭亚那人和它将给圭亚那带来的财富和投资也非常重要，按人均计算，圭亚那是一个贫穷的国家。

对我们来说，它显然是我们投资组合中非常重要的增长部分，就像二叠纪一样。我认为我们非常努力地以最负责任的方式和资本效率的方式做到这一点。但同时，速度更快。如果你看看我们在那里所做的事情，就会发现，坦率地说，我们实际上正在以业内大多数人都无法实现的速度将该资源推向市场，更不用说在几个项目的过程中维持下去了。 。所以，我们有一个非常好的节奏，这就是他的意图——他的想法就是保持专注并继续前进。我们拥有巨大的资源，可以为您提供开发的奢侈，称之为资本项目的程序化方法。这并不是说我们没有根据资源定制每个项目。但是，我认为，在该领域保持一致的目标会带来巨大的好处，这使我们能够继续以非常有效的速度引入这些资源。这是我们增长引擎的重要组成部分，因此非常重要， 很重要。但是，正如我所说，我们在这样的背景下看待它，虽然它非常重要，但它不能成为单一焦点。我们必须继续在世界各地寻找机会，拥有多元化的投资组合，以继续填补这一渠道。

JB：随着圭亚那政府变得更加博学和更多公司参与进来，他们对未来进行更艰难的政治谈判有什么想法吗？

DW：我认为有一段对话被大量报道。我不会对此发表评论。但我只想说，我认为我们与政府有着真正健全和有效的关系。我去过那里几次开会。我们的管理团队在那里。我认为他们认识到我们带来的价值。我认为，除了制作之外，重要的不仅仅是我们做了什么，还有我们是如何做的。我们带来的诚信和价值体系，我们与他们讨论机会时采取的直接方法，我们带来的透明度。我认为我们已经建立了一定程度的信任，并且我们的交付成果获得了很大的可信度。我们完全按照我们所说的去做。这些关系随着时间的推移而发展，随着更多的兴趣和更多的成功来到圭亚那，这种关系将继续发生。这是自然进化。

JB：看看隔壁的地理边界，您仍然对苏里南非常看好吗？

DW：当你看到这些机会时，基本的价值驱动因素是岩石的质量。在您钻这些井并进入岩石之前，您不会知道这一点。所以我想说，我们对任何地区的看涨实际上都是岩石质量的函数。你可以看到一些结构，并了解你认为可能存在的东西，但在你把洞弄下来并看到你得到的东西之前，我会尽力保持一定程度的冷静，可以这么说（笑）。我尽量不要对这些事情太兴奋，因为这是一项具有挑战性的业务，而且你必须应对很多不确定性。 

JB：随着 XTO 的全球关注和所有页岩知识的发展，无论是在阿根廷的 Vaca Muerta 还是其他地方，这是否有很大的意义？

DW：自从获得这份工作以来，我一直非常关注的事情之一是我们公司的规模以及我们所拥有的各个领域的业务。从历史上看，我们的组织方式实际上有很多能力被隔离在业务的不同领域。这使得学习和迁移变得更加困难。如果您看到我们在公司中正在进行的转型，我们现在建立了三个业务（上游、产品解决方案和低碳解决方案），并集中了这些业务所共有的功能，这些功能对于交付至关重要这些企业。

我们已将所有技术组织整合为一个企业技术组织，并围绕能力进行协调。因此，无论你相信与否，二叠纪盆地所需的通用能力，其中一些技术能力也与我们在炼油厂和下游所做的事情相关。同样的人正在做这些事情，因为他们现在是根据能力工作的。这使他们的工作变得更加有趣和令人满意，因为他们能够从一个业务领域转移到另一个领域，并以一种为不同业务带来价值的方式应用他们的专业知识。但与此同时，它使他们能够通过从不同的经验和他们在整个投资组合中所做的工作中学习来变得更好。 

JB：您之前提到了边际桶。自页岩油繁荣以来，市场与桶的边际价格发生了怎样的变化？这对您的低供应成本策略有何影响？

德国之声：如果你回到页岩气出现之前，世界上原油短缺。因此，当时的观点，我想说我们自己的组织也属于这种观点，即市场将承担提供所需资源所需的任何成本。当时加拿大有大量重油，因此供应的边际成本要高得多。我认为页岩气的潜力还没有完全实现，就你可以在多大程度上降低成本并使之成为新的边际供应而言。这是市场的巨大转变。如果你从结构上看位于供应成本曲线末端的资源，就会发现处于供应成本低端的页岩油已经将所有其他资源类型排除在外，并确实降低了边际成本。供应。随着需求的变化，您现在在市场上处于结构性较低的价格点。这确实影响了我们如何思考我们需要在供应成本曲线上定位什么，以及为什么我们如此专注于对极低价格的弹性，因为页岩气所发挥的作用。 

JB：就排放量而言，您的目标是到 2030 年在二叠纪地区实现净零排放，然后在 2050 年在全球范围内实现范围 1 和范围 2 排放运营资产的净零排放。您能详细说明一下您是如何到达那里的吗？

德国之声：二叠纪盆地净零排放，我们正在努力实现这一目标。因此，企业制定了执行和实现这一目标的计划。它基本上需要更换很多设备来减少排放，然后电气化，还要与发电机合作以获得可再生能源。你必须进行数学计算，了解它需要什么，然后你必须有一个执行该数学计算的计划。这两件事我们都做了。因此，我们的组织确切地知道要实现这一目标需要做什么。我对我们正在做的事情感觉非常好。这不是什么天上掉馅饼的概念。它正在发生——地下的钢铁——证明了这一点。

我认为展示你可以增加产量和减少排放非常重要。这些并不是相互排斥的事情。从长远来看，只要世界继续关注净零排放并转向低碳经济，发展碳排放量非常低（即使不是零）的价值链，我认为也会满足未来的需求。未来。因此，我认为，沿着价值链定位，开发无碳足迹的产品，将为我们未来的发展做好准备。

The Exxon Mobil precursor Standard Oil was first listed among the 30 blue-chip companies in the Dow Jones industrial average in 1928. By 2007, the fossil fuel behemoth peaked as the largest publicly traded company in the world—in any industry—with a market capitalization of more than $500 billion.

But then came the Great Recession and the tech boom and the energy transition and, finally, the pandemic. The bottom seemingly fell out and Exxon Mobil was unceremoniously dumped out of the Dow in 2020 with a market value of just—relatively speaking—$178 billion.

But then came vaccines and demand resurgence and the war in Ukraine and record-breaking profits of $56 billion in 2022. Now, the Texas Juggernaut’s market cap again inches closer to $500 billion, once more easily leading the way as the largest investor-owned energy company in the world.

The developed world again seems to recognize the value, or at least the necessity, of oil and gas—and Exxon Mobil is front and center.

With the purchases of XTO Energy and the Bass family holdings, Exxon Mobil has transformed itself into a shale powerhouse, especially in the booming Permian Basin. And the company emerged as an exploratory pioneer in South America, turning tiny Guyana into an important part of the global oil landscape. 

Despite pulling out of Russia for political reasons and seeing somewhat disappointing results in Brazil, Exxon Mobil is on an upward trajectory, aiming to hit 1 MMboe/d from the Permian and 1.2 MMboe/d from Guyana by 2027.

Chairman and CEO Darren Woods, a 30-year Exxon Mobil veteran and Texas A&M University alum, came up on the refining side of the business. So, he sees the whole value chain and prioritizes Exxon’s Growing the Gulf Initiative for pipeline, petrochemical, refining and LNG growth along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. There are major chemicals and plastics expansions at the Baytown and Baton Rouge complexes, a new petrochemical campus near Corpus Christi, historic refining growth in Beaumont and the construction of Golden Pass LNG.

The Permian growth helps to feed downstream expansions, and that West Texas footprint could rapidly expand if Exxon seals the deal on a longtime flirtation with the top Midland Basin driller, Pioneer Natural Resources, in a sale that could easily exceed $70 billion.

And Exxon Mobil is now leaning into the energy transition—not with wind and solar—but with carbon capture, hydrogen, renewable diesel and more.

Hart Energy Editorial Director Jordan Blum sat down with Woods in an exclusive interview to discuss all of the successes and challenges. This interview was conducted before the speculative mid-April Pioneer news, which Exxon Mobil declined to discuss. 

Jordan Blum: Big picture, how is Exxon Mobil focusing more and more on North and South America, especially given the rise in global demand, the withdrawal from Russia and European taxation concerns?

Darren Woods: That’s where the opportunities that we have in our portfolio are most attractive and most competitive, so that’s where we’re putting our emphasis. My expectation would be that, over time, that will change based on where the opportunities present themselves. We continue to look all around the world. The nice thing about our industry is it’s connected. It’s a pretty efficient market, so we go where the resources are, and where we can bring a competitive advantage and differentiate ourselves. 

So, our approach will be fairly diversified. We actually think from a risk management standpoint, given some of the uncertainties associated with governments and how administrations change with time, that having a portfolio that’s not dependent on any one place to be successful is a good strategy, which I think proved true with the assets that were expropriated in Russia. If you look at the size of that ($3.4 billion impairment charge), in the scheme of everything else we were doing, certainly the company was able to manage through that.

JB: In North America, obviously, the Permian is king. Exxon Mobil is roughly a top-five producer in the Permian and a very active driller. What’s the current importance of the Permian, along with production goals and targets?

DW: A key success factor in our industry and for us as a company in producing oil and gas is ensuring that, from a cost-of-supply standpoint, we’re on the low side, the left-hand side of the cost-of-supply curve. So, as we’re going through the cycles, irrespective of how low the price goes, there’s a price setter that’s out there that has a higher cost to produce than we do, which gives you a guaranteed margin. 
In the Permian, several years back we used this phrase using a baseball analogy: small ball. And, when we first acquired XTO and participated in that, we kind of continued to play that short game. But we’re long-ball hitters as a big company. And so we challenged ourselves to define, “What does the long-ball game look like in the Permian?” In the Permian, you know where the resource is. It’s not a question of going out and finding the resource. It’s really a question of, how do you most effectively extract the most of it? That’s the big challenge in the Permian.

And so, we set ourselves up to approach this as a manufacturing issue and drive efficiency and effectiveness, and bring technology here into play in the Permian to try to maximize the recovery. We’re still on that journey. But the work that we’ve done in bringing that new approach to the Permian has driven our performance to lead the industry, and driven our cost of supply well below $40/bbl, which then makes it resilient. So, it’s a critical part of the portfolio and one where we think we bring some unique advantages that we haven’t fully realized yet. So, I see a lot of upside to the Permian.

JB: I know you’re doing more with automated rigs and you have the 1 MMboe/d production goal, but is there much concern about drilling inventory shortages and the core-of-the-core areas being drilled up?

DW: I would go back to when we thought about the approach we wanted to take here. At the time, I would say broader industry was very focused on high initial production rates, so they were drilling the sweet spots and getting those rates high. We, actually, in looking at it, said what we want to do is maximize recovery. That’s the right answer from an NPV (net present value). Rather than focus on the sweet spot and get high initial production rates, we focused on maximizing recovery, which led to this cube development that we’ve been working on and continuing to optimize.

The intent there is to drill in a way that maximizes full recovery, so we didn’t go down the path of sweet-spot, high-production rates. We’re not seeing the same challenges as many others out there that kind of went for the best. As you hit your sweet spot, you’re taking energy out of system, so to speak, so recovery becomes harder and harder. I think we’ve avoided the problem that a lot of people are talking about. We have a pretty deep well inventory, so I think we feel pretty comfortable with the plans that we have in place.

By the way, we don’t really set targets. We develop plans. In my expectations, we’re going to meet those plans (laughs). In my organization, they understand that. So, we’ve got a really good plan we’ve been delivering on pretty consistently. So, I’ve got a lot of confidence we’ll hit that 1 MMboe/d by 2027.

JB: I know it’s not super obvious for everyone from the outside looking in, but can you elaborate on how the Permian is feeding growth across the value chain? 

DW: Yeah, we’ve got a lot going on. If you look across our businesses, on the oil side of the equation, it’s obviously a depletion business. There’s growing demand and depleting resources, so it’s a big challenge to make sure we’re investing to try to certainly offset depletion, but then to grow production in total, which we’ve been fairly successful at doing here lately. 

If you look at the chemical business, it’s a growing business. The challenge there is less about depleting resources and more about growing the market, and to maintain market position, and to penetrate deeper with our performance products. You’ve got to keep investing in that space. 
And, then, in the refining business, it’s less about growth and more about evolving your production profile and your yield patterns to meet the evolving demand and the mix of products, so, higher-value products and lower-carbon products. 

As we looked across all that, the Gulf Coast in the U.S. has elements of each of those things. As we were looking into the opportunities there, we saw a lot of synergy in connecting all of those. And understanding the quality of the crudes that we’re bringing on, and maintaining that quality as we ship it through the pipelines, and delivering it into our refineries and taking into account that quality allows us to optimize the operation. We become more efficient and get better yields on our plants to run more stably. One of the advantages with our big footprint is you can leverage a lot of the existing infrastructure and capacities in place. So, it lends itself to the incremental investment that we’ve made versus a grassroots plant somewhere else in the world. 

JB: In that same vein, with macro demand, how important has LNG become for Exxon Mobil with Golden Pass LNG and other potential projects?

DW: We felt for as long as I’ve been in this job (January 2017) that Golden Pass LNG was going to be an important part of the mix. We never wavered from that concept. We felt like that was a logical extension of our portfolio. Our view was the LNG market would grow bigger and deeper, which would lead to more opportunities to trade. So, the Golden Pass opportunity really allowed us to lean into what we believed would be a rapidly growing market with more liquidity and more tonnes moving around from different regions. We also believed that the U.S. would be the marginal source of supply, so having an advantaged LNG facility on that marginal production layer gave us an opportunity to build that. So, we stuck with that. Even as we went through the pandemic, that was one of the few projects that we did not pause, because we recognized that was going to be needed.

The big challenge with LNG is production comes on in fairly large chunks, so you have these periods of real tightness, which we certainly saw last year. Then we’ll get into some point in the future where there’s a whole lot of supply, and oversupply in the market, and the market gets weak. Our strategy is not to try to time those cycles, but to make sure what we build is resilient to the bottom of those cycles. 

JB: Pivoting to the Low Carbon Solutions business, you’re not doing a ton specifically with renewables, but you’re doing a lot with the broader energy transition. Going through some quick hits: there’s the low-carbon hydrogen facility in Baytown, advanced plastics recycling center, the carbon capture partnership with Mitsubishi, renewable diesel with Imperial Oil in Canada and more.

DW: Let me start with your observation that we’re not going into renewables. One of the misconceptions when people talk about us being an energy company, they think power generation. Well, we’re not in the power-generation business. We’re not in the electron business. We’re in the molecule transformation business. We’ve looked at wind and solar and whether it makes sense to get into the electron business. But we don’t have a particular competency in that space. If there isn’t an advantage we can bring to that marketplace, then why pursue it? Others can do it just as well as we can. If they need money, we can write checks. If you look at molecule transformation, we have for 140 years effectively found and transformed hydrogen and carbon molecules into products that the world needs. If you think about us powering gasoline cars or diesel trucks, we make products that people use every day. I don’t think I can make it through an hour without touching some product that comes out of our chemical plants. That’s all about this molecule transformation. 

So what are we focused on? Carbon capture and storage. That’s capturing CO₂ molecules and transporting them and storing them underground and using our subsurface understanding to do that effectively.
Hydrogen is the same thing. It’s using our project capabilities, technology and partnerships to develop hydrogen. Renewable diesel is the same thing too. Those are just a different type of hydrogen and carbon bonds.

So, there’s a synergy that exists with our core capabilities and competencies, and that’s where we’re making our investments. We’re using the exact same criteria that we’re using in our base business, which is, first and foremost, it’s got to generate a return. At the end of the day, we’ve got a responsibility to generate a return for our shareholders.

JB: Some of these low-carbon ventures are mega projects in their own rights?

DW: Absolutely. Our Baytown hydrogen project by most definitions is considered a mega project at $7 billion. 

JB: Going south a bit, how is Guyana progressing? The announcements have slowed a bit, but the discoveries keep coming. Is it hard to understate the importance of Guyana to Exxon Mobil right now?

DW: As [Hess Corp. CEO] John Hess said, it’s one of the largest finds in the last decade. So, I think it’s important for the world and, obviously, very important for the Guyanese and the wealth and investment it will bring to Guyana, which, on a per-capita basis, is a poor country.

For us, it’s obviously a very important growth piece of our portfolio, like the Permian is. I think we worked really hard to do that in the most responsible way and in a way that’s capital efficient. But, at the same time, quicker. If you look at what we’ve done there, we’re actually bringing that resource to market at a rate that, frankly, most in the industry haven’t been able to achieve, let alone sustain over the course of several projects. So, we’ve got a really good rhythm going, and that was the intent—this idea to just stay focused and keep cranking. We have this enormous resource that gives you the luxury of developing, call it a programmatic approach to capital projects. It’s not that we’re not tailoring each project to the resource. But, having a consistency of purpose in that space, I think, brings great benefit, which allows us to continue on a very efficient pace of bringing those resources in. It’s a big part of our growth engine, so it’s very, very important. But, as I said, we look at it in context of, while it’s very important, it can’t be a singular focus. We’ve got to continue to look for opportunities all around the world to have a diversified portfolio to continue to fill that pipeline.

JB: Any thoughts on the Guyana government talking about having tougher political negotiations going forward as they become more learned and with more companies getting involved?

DW: I think there’s a dialogue that gets reported on quite a bit. I won’t comment on that. But I’ll just say we have a really, I think, sound and effective relationship with the government. I’ve been there several times for meetings. Our management teams are there. I think they recognize the value that we brought. I think, above and beyond the production, it’s not just what we’ve done, but how we’ve done it. The integrity and value system that we bring, the straightforward approach we take in discussing the opportunities with them, the transparency we bring. I think we’ve established a level of trust, and we’ve gained a lot of credibility with what we’ve delivered. We’ve done exactly what we said we were going to do. Those relationships evolve with time and that will continue to happen as more interest and more success comes to Guyana. It’s the natural evolution.

JB: Looking at geographic boundaries next door, are you still pretty bullish on Suriname as well?

DW: The fundamental value driver when you look at these opportunities is the quality of the rock. You don’t know that until you drill these wells and get into the rock. So I would say our bullishness of any area is really a function of the quality of the rock. You can see some structures and have a view of what you think might be there, but until you get the holes down and see what you’ve got, I try to maintain a level of calm, so to speak (laughs). I try not to get too excited about these things because it’s a challenging business and there’s a lot of uncertainty you’ve got to manage. 

JB: With a global focus and all the shale learnings with XTO, does that translate much, whether it’s in the Vaca Muerta in Argentina or somewhere else?

DW: One of the things I’ve been very focused on since getting this job is the size of our company and the business that we have across the spectrum. The way we were organized, historically, we actually had a lot of that capability siloed off in different areas of the business. It made the learning and transferring more difficult. If you see the transformation we’ve been making in the company, we’ve established now three businesses (Upstream, Product Solutions and Low Carbon Solutions) and have centralized the capabilities that are common to these businesses and are critical to the delivering of these businesses.

We have consolidated all of our technology organizations into one corporate technology organization and the alignment around capabilities. So, the common capabilities required in the Permian, believe it or not, some of those technical capabilities are also relevant to what we’re doing in our refineries and in downstream. The same people are working on those things because they’re now working based on capabilities. It makes their jobs a hell of a lot more interesting and satisfying because they’re able to move from one area of the business to another and apply their expertise in a way that brings value to different businesses. But, at the same time, it allows them to get better by learning from different experiences and the work they’re doing across the portfolio. 

JB: You mentioned marginal barrels earlier. How has the market changed since the shale boom with the marginal price of barrels and how that influences your low cost-of-supply strategy?

DW: If you go back in time before shale, the world was short crude. So, the view at the time, and I would say our own organization fell into that, was the market will bear whatever cost is required to bring a needed resource on. At that time, there was a lot of heavy oil coming out of Canada, so the marginal cost of supply was much, much higher. I think the potential of shale was not fully realized in terms of just how far you can drive that cost down and make that the new marginal supply. That’s been a huge shift in the marketplace. If you look structurally at the resource that sits on the end of the cost-of-supply curve, that shale coming in at the lower end of the cost of supply has pushed all the other resource types out and really brought down that marginal cost of supply. As demand moves around, you’re now at a structurally lower price point in the marketplace. That really influences how we think about where we need to be positioned on that cost-of-supply curve, and why we’re so focused on having a resiliency to very low prices because of that role that shale has played. 

JB: In terms of emissions, you’re aiming to hit net zero in the Permian by 2030 and then worldwide in 2050, in terms of operated assets from Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Can you elaborate on how you get there?

DW: Net zero in the Permian, we’re well on our way to achieving that. So, the business has developed that plan to execute and achieve that. It basically requires replacing a lot of equipment to reduce emissions, and then electrification, and also working with power generators to get in renewable power. You’ve got to do the math, in terms of understanding what it’s going to require, and then you’ve got to have a plan to execute that math. We’ve done both of those things. So, our organization knows exactly what it needs to do to achieve that. I feel really good about what we’re doing. It’s not some pie-in-the-sky concept. It’s happening—steel in the ground—demonstrating that.

I think it’s very important to show you can grow production and reduce emissions. Those are not mutually exclusive things. Thinking longer term, to the extent that the world continues to focus on net-zero and moving to a lower-carbon economy, developing value chains that have very low carbon emissions, if not zero, I think plays into what will be in demand in the future. So, setting ourselves up along that value chain to be positioned to develop products with no carbon footprint, I think will position us for what could lie ahead in the future.