HOUSTON, March. 6 (Xinhua) -- ExxonMobil Corporation, world's largest oil and gas company, announced on Monday that it will invest 20 billion U.S. dollars in a 10-year period to expand its manufacturing capacity in the U.S. part of the Mexico Gulf Coast, a major oil and gas producing area in the United States.
Announcing the company's Growing the Gulf initiative at the CERAWeek, an annual international gathering of energy industry leaders, experts, government officials and policy makers, Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of ExxonMobil, said that the energy giant will do so as it wants to take advantage of the American energy revolution.
He said that as a leading producer of oil and natural gas, the United States is now incentivizing U.S. manufacturing to invest and grow.
"We are using new, abundant domestic energy supplies to provide products to the world at a competitive advantage resulting from lower costs and abundant raw materials. In this way, an upstream technology breakthrough has led to a downstream manufacturing renaissance," he said.
Woods detailed that the projects, at 11 proposed and existing sites, are expected to generate thousands of new high-paying jobs and 20 billion dollars in increased economic activity in the U.S. states of Texas and Louisiana.
"We expect these 11 projects to create over 45,000 jobs. Many of these are high-skilled, high-paying jobs averaging about 100,000 dollars a year. And these jobs will have a multiplier effect, creating many more jobs in the communities that service these new investments," he said.
According to Woods, ExxonMobil is strategically investing in new refining and chemical-manufacturing projects in the U.S. Gulf Coast region to expand its manufacturing and export capacity. The company' s Growing the Gulf expansion program, consists of 11 major chemical, refining, lubricant and liquefied natural gas projects at proposed new and existing facilities along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Investments began in 2013 and are expected to continue through at least 2022.
Most of ExxonMobil's planned new chemical capacity investment in the Gulf region is targeted toward export markets in Asia and elsewhere.
Woods said that these projects are export machines, generating products that high-growth nations need to support larger populations with higher standards of living.
"Those overseas markets are the motivation behind our investments. The supply is here; the demand is there. We want to keep connecting those dots," he said.
The Gulf of Mexico area, both onshore and offshore, is one of the most important regions for energy resources and infrastructure. Gulf of Mexico federal offshore oil production accounts for 17 percent of total U.S. crude oil production and federal offshore natural gas production in the Gulf accounts for 5 percent of total U.S. dry production. Over 45 percent of total U.S. petroleum refining capacity is located along the Gulf coast, as well as 51 percent of total U.S. natural gas processing plant capacity.
The five-day CERAWeek by IHS Markit opened here on Monday with a theme of "pace of change: building a new energy future".
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