New York - Exxon Mobil is trading in long-term projects that pump oil over decades for US shale drilling that can be switched on or off as crude prices change.
Long a world leader in multibillion-dollar oil and natural gas developments that take years to build and even longer to profit, Exxon is diverting about one-third of its drilling budget this year to shale fields that will deliver cash flow in as little as three years, said chairperson and chief executive Darren Woods.
Next year, US shale will absorb 50 percent of Exxon’s worldwide drilling budget, Woods said on Wednesday, his first public appearance since succeeding Rex Tillerson in January.
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Output from shale wells will grow an average of 20 percent annually until 2025 as Woods intensifies the company’s focus on the Americas.
Late-comer to shale, Exxon shunned it for the first decade of this century as a niche that couldn’t generate enough output to make a mark on the balance sheet.