ExxonMobil Corp. plans to triple total daily production from its Permian basin operations by 2025 and invest $2 billion in terminal and transportation expansions to support the operations, spurred by changes to the US corporate tax rate and increased low-cost supply.
With a 65% increase in its horizontal rig count in the Permian over the next several years, ExxonMobil expects to hit a total production target of 600,000 boe/d by 2025. Tight oil production from the Delaware and Midland basins will increase fivefold in the same period.
The company has doubled its footage drilled per day on horizontal wells in the Permian since early 2014 and reduced per-foot drilling costs by 70%. Through its $6-billion Bass companies acquisition in 2017, ExxonMobil added an estimated resource of 3.4 billion boe, with upside potential in multiple additional prospective horizons (OGJ Online, Jan. 17, 2017).
The increased production will provide low-cost supply and feedstocks to ExxonMobil downstream and chemical operations in Baytown, Beaumont, and Mt. Belvieu, Tex.; and Baton Rouge, La.
In October, ExxonMobil acquired a crude oil terminal in Wink, Tex., from Genesis Energy LP (OGJ Online, Oct. 18, 2017). A $2-billion expansion and upgrade of the terminal is planned to move ExxonMobil and third-party production from the Delaware, Central, and Midland basins to ExxonMobil’s operations and other market destinations in the Gulf Coast region.
Additionally, the company plans to build an ethane steam cracker at the company’s Baytown facility to provide ethylene feedstock for two new polyethylene units at its Mont Belvieu facility. A production unit at the company’s polyethylene plant in Beaumont will increase the plant’s capacity by 65%, and expansions at Baytown and Beaumont refineries will add more than 300,000 b/d of light crude processing capacity.