Following the January start-up of the Exxon Mobil operated Mondo field in the field in the Kizomba C development offshore Angola, Starling are the second and third major upstream start-ups for Exxon Mobil this year.
- In total, the firm anticipates 12 major upstream project start-ups in 2008, including the first two 7.8 million ton per annum LNG trains in Qatar, in the second half of the year.
- It also signed the main principles agreement for a new 25-year production-sharing contract with the Malaysian National Oil Company, Petronas.
- Through the new PSC, it expects to invest in significant enhanced oil recovery and conventional oil development activities in Malaysia, utilizing its proprietary technologies and industry leading project execution capabilities.
In the recent Gulf of Mexico lease sale, the firm was the high bidder for 15 blocks totaling 85,000 acres.
- Additionally, it was awarded 13 full and partial blocks totaling 760,000 gross acres in the Porcupine basin, offshore Ireland.
- In April, the firm announced two new agreements related to unconventional gas and liquids opportunities in Hungary.
- The first is a joint exploration program covering a 387,000 gross acres in the Mako Trough area of southeast Hungary.
- The second is a production and development agreement covering a further 185,000 gross acres on an adjacent block.
- Exxon Mobil and affiliate, Imperial Oil Limited, enhanced the portfolio of unconventional exploration opportunities, with the recently announced capture of 115,000 acres in the Horn River Basin in the Northeastern British Columbia, Canada.
In refining, the firm ran 35 crude new to individual refineries, nine of which were new to Exxon Mobil.
- It continues to identify and implement projects to improve performance at the refineries by applying new technologies, which further enhance operations reliability, and margin capture.
- In the Lubricants and Specialties business, the firm launched the Mobil 1, advanced fuel economy synthetic motor oils in the U.S.
- In addition to providing outstanding engine protection, these advanced products can improve fuel efficiency in modern gasoline engines by up to 2% compared to traditional engine oils.
In the Chemical Segment, the firm launched a new methyllysine polyethylene platform called Enable mPE which generates films with exceptional performance and also delivers energy savings in the production process.
- The polyolefin plant in Baton Rouge was awarded the distinguished safety award from the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association for an unprecedented sixth consecutive year.
Key questions and answers from the first quarter earnings call conducted by Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM: chart) on May 01, 2008.
Douglas Terreson (Morgan Stanley):
Comment on whether in U.S. refining and marketing, specifically Shell, whether the economic effect of the switch, away from Venezuelan and feedstock was significant in the period?
Henry Hubble: It was not a major factor in the results. The primary issue associated with the margins are across the Board, if you look around the globe.
Mark Flannery (Credit Suisse):
What is happening with units production costs and unit DD&A in international E&P?
Henry Hubble: You are going to have non-cash impacts associated with new projects that we are bringing on, and you are seeing those continuing impacts as we are basically spending CapEx to bring on those new projects.
We have a consistent program of working to offset those things and when we look across the Board around the globe, we are well able to offset the normal inflation effects.
Mark Flannery (Credit Suisse):
On the European refinery run rate, how would you characterize your maintenance activities there?
Henry Hubble: In the throughput area, the biggest impact in Europe was the Englestock refinery sale, that we had in the period that took out over 90 a day of capacity.
Mark Flannery (Credit Suisse):
On US refining, are you faring any downstream capacity right now, particularly think about SGCS or other gasoline units?
Henry Hubble: All of our conversion capacity has been running full, and we did have some turnaround activity in parallel basically doing essential maintenance that we have to do and we tend to be a little in the outside of the gasoline season, we tend to take more of those turnarounds.
Neil McMahon (Bernstein):
Comment on the increase in exploration expense?
Henry Hubble: The increased costs have been associated with seismic activity. When you look at the number of places that we have acquired acreage positions and we are now out basically shooting seismic to evaluate those in both Libya and New Zealand and others.
