By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com
ExxonMobil aims to nearly double the volumes of liquefied natural gas it is handling to more than 40 million tons per year by 2030, a top executive at the U.S. supermajor has told Nikkei in an interview.
“We're very bullish about the growth opportunities in natural gas and LNG. When you think about that in the portfolio with a corporation, investing in more LNG is certainly part of the strategy,” Andrew Barry, vice president in charge of LNG marketing at Exxon, told the publication.
Currently, Exxon is estimated to handle around 22 million tons of LNG annually.
LNG is one of the oil and gas giant’s priority investment areas this decade, alongside the U.S. Permian Basin, Guyana, and Brazil. Exxon’s corporate plan through 2027 includes expectations that its upstream earnings potential is set to double by 2027 compared to 2019, resulting from investments in high-return, low-cost-of-supply projects. More than 70% of capital investments by 2027 will be deployed in strategic developments in the Permian, offshore Guyana, Brazil, and LNG projects around the world, Exxon said in December.
Exxon is developing LNG projects in Mozambique and Papua New Guinea, while it signed last year an agreement with QatarEnergy to take 25% in a joint venture, which in turn will own 25% of the entire North Field East project, including four LNG trains with a combined nameplate capacity of 32 million tons per year. First LNG from North Field East, one of Qatar’s flagship megaprojects to boost its LNG export capacity, is expected in 2026.
QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil also have a joint project in the United States, the Golden Pass LNG Terminal in Sabine Pass, Texas, which is expected to start up in 2024. Last autumn, Exxon and the Qatari state-owned firm agreed to independently market Golden Pass LNG volumes. ExxonMobil will market 30% of Golden Pass LNG volumes.
