Exxon Mobil plans no new refineries

Exxon Mobil Corp. has no plans to build new U.S. oil refineries, despite government projections that show U.S. energy consumption growing 1.1 percent per year from 2004 to 2030.

Rex Tillerson, chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil, said in remarks Tuesday in Salt Lake City that his company sees no need for any new refineries, primarily because of capacity expansions that have already occurred in the industry.

"Our industry as a whole has added the equivalent of 14 new refineries since 1995," Tillerson said during a meeting of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association. "We have no plans of our own because we think we still have a lot of potential in our existing refining complexes to continue to expand that capacity."

Tillerson said Exxon Mobil has added the equivalent of three average size refineries in the last 10 years.

"Over the last 25 years the industry's total throughput has increased about 27 percent despite a 50 percent reduction in the number of refineries," Tillerson said. "Our industry has provided more fuel to Americans with fewer refineries."

In dollar terms, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the economy as a whole is becoming less dependent on energy, despite the nation's growing reliance on imported fuel.

Tillerson said there are sufficient petroleum reserves to meet the world's oil demand to the middle of this century.

Citing estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey, Tillerson said there are about 3 trillion barrels of conventional oil remaining in the world. In addition, 1 trillion barrels is estimated to be in oil sands and another trillion barrels of oil is locked in shale.

"Man has consumed, since he first started consuming oil, about a trillion barrels," Tillerson said. "Our view is that the resource base itself is not the issue. The issue is going to be, will governments allow us access to those resource opportunities, and then can we continue to develop the technology advances that allow us the technical access."

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