Exxon pleases Trump with $20 billion shale building move

Bloomberg

Exxon Mobil Corp. announced a $20 billion building spree in the heart of the US chemical and refining industry, a program it said would create 45,000 jobs. President Donald Trump quickly tweeted his support, calling the oil producer a “special company.”
The only problem? The announcement just gave a name to a series of investments the company began making as far back as 2013, before the collapse in oil prices. Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods dubbed the program “Growing the Gulf,” part of an effort to boost energy exports from abundant natural gas and oil supplies on the US Gulf Coast.
It’s the latest effort by a corporation to proactively present itself as a job creator to a president who has made the issue a centerpiece of his campaign and his less than two-month tenure in office. Trump described Exxon as a “true American success story” in a statement. The president followed up with a trademark tweet: “We are already winning again, America!” and a short video celebrating the announcement which he said was in part because of his administration’s policies.
All the jobs will be located along the Gulf Coast, and many will pay an average of $100,000 a year, Woods said in a speech at CERAWeek, a huge annual industry conference in Houston. The investments will continue at least through 2022. Woods was making only his second public appearance as CEO since January, when he succeeded Rex Tillerson, who left the company to become Trump’s secretary of state.
Exxon follows other US giants such as Ford Motor Co., Intel Corp., General Motors Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. responding to Trump’s call to eschew overseas investments and focus on domestic developments. Like those other plans, Exxon didn’t specify how much of the 10-year investment program was previously announced.
After decades of locating refineries and chemical plants close to raw materials and end markets in the Middle East and East Asia, Exxon is committed to steering construction dollars to its home country, Woods said. The plan involves 11 projects in the Gulf Coast region.
“These projects are export machines, generating products that high-growth nations need to support larger populations with higher standards of living,” Woods said. “The supply is here; the demand is there. We want to keep connecting those dots.”
Woods’ comments followed Exxon’s disclosure last week that it’s shifting half its worldwide drilling budget to US shale fields next year. The company’s shares have dropped 8 percent this
year as oil prices have stabilized between $50 and $55 a barrel, after falling from more than $100 in 2014.