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ExxonMobil Chalks Out Plans to More Than Double Earnings

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In its annual meeting, ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM - Free Report) announced its intention to increase earnings by more than two fold by 2025 and address the risks of climate change.

ExxonMobil’s plan will be especially aided by lower-cost-of-supply investments in U.S. tight oil, deepwater and liquefied natural gas (LNG). This will be backed by a group of industry-leading technologies comprising advanced seismology, integrated reservoir modeling and data analytics.

The company intends to produce energy to cater to the growing demand worldwide and address the risks of climate change through constant research in lower-carbon technologies. Per ExxonMobil, growing energy demand can be met only by investing in new channels in the industry, under a scenario to restrict the global increase in temperature to 2 degree Celsius.

ExxonMobil plans to boost tight oil production by fivefold in the U.S. Permian Basin. The company will also bring online 25 projects globally that will add volumes of more than 1 million oil-equivalent barrels per day. About 10 billion oil-equivalent barrels was added to its resource base in 2017 in locations including the Permian, Guyana, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and Brazil.

ExxonMobil is making strategic investments at refineries in Baytown and Beaumont in Texas as well as Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Singapore and Fawley in the U.K. to upgrade product line-up. The company is targeting to grow its chemical manufacturing capacity in North America and Asia Pacific by about 40%, partly by adding 13 new facilities comprising two world-class steam crackers in the United States. The investments would leverage ExxonMobil’s technology leadership, integrated businesses and skilled employees.

The company’s chairman and CEO Darren Woods also provided details relating to ExxonMobil’s reply to a resolution passed during the 2017 shareholders meeting in quest for more information about tackling climate change.

Earlier in 2018, the company released its updated Energy & Carbon Summary report, which evaluated a range of 2 degree Celsius limit by experts at a Stanford University forum. Oil and natural gas play a vital role in meeting the world’s energy needs in each situation and remain significant sources, even in models with the lowest level of total energy demand. The analysis also established the need for advanced technology.

ExxonMobil announced its goal to enhance industry-leading energy efficiency in refining and chemical manufacturing facilities. The most significant reductions are expected in operations in West Africa, which include use of third-party infrastructure.

The primary objectives incorporate the restriction of greenhouse gas emissions, reduction in global warming, appointment of a climate expert on the board, reports on fracking activities and climate change impact assessments. ExxonMobil spends toward lower-emission energy solutions that comprise cogeneration, cut down of flaring, energy competence, biofuels, carbon capture and storage as well as other technologies.

Recently, the company announced plans to reduce greenhouse emission by 2020. ExxonMobil targets a 15% cut in methane emissions and a 25% deduction in flaring from levels in 2016. Since 2000, the company has spent more than $9 billion on lower-emission energy solutions that have enabled it to achieve 10% improvement in energy efficiency across global refining operations.

Price Performance

In the past three months, ExxonMobil’s shares have gained 8.4% compared with the industry’s 7.9% rise.



 

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

ExxonMobil currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A few better-ranked players in the same sector are Nine Energy Service, Inc (NINE - Free Report) , Equinor ASA (EQNR - Free Report) and CVR Refining, LP . All three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Nine Energy Service is engaged in delivering onshore completion and production services to unconventional oil and gas resource development. The company pulled off a positive earnings surprise of 28.57% in the preceding quarter.

Equinor, based in Norway, is a major international integrated oil and gas company. It witnessed an average positive earnings surprise of 11.53% in the last four quarters.

Sugar Land, TX-based CVR Refining is an independent downstream energy partnership with refining and associated logistics properties in the Midcontinent United States. The company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 7.05% in the last four quarters.

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