Exxon Mobil Corp’s US$20 billion building spree in the heart of the US chemical and refining industry is to create 45,000 jobs and boost US efforts to feed Asian demand, the company’s new boss said.
US President Donald Trump could not be happier.
Following Exxon chief executive Darren Woods’ announcement of the projects on Monday, Trump described Exxon as a “true American success story” in a statement.
Photo: Bloomberg
The president followed up with a trademark tweet: “We are already winning again, America!” and a White House video.
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 nation, Woods said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas.
The plan involves 11 projects in the Gulf Coast region, some of which were in the works as far back as 2013.
“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.”
Exxon followed other US giants such as Ford Motor Co, Intel Corp, General Motors Co and Wal-Mart Stores Inc in responding to Trump’s call to eschew overseas investments and focus on domestic developments. Like those other plans, Exxon did not specify how much of the 10-year investment program was previously announced.
All the jobs are to be located along the Gulf Coast and many pay an average of about US$100,000 a year, Woods said.
The investments are to continue at least through 2022, Woods said in only his second public appearance since January, when he succeeded Rex Tillerson, who left the chief executive job to become US secretary of state.
Woods’ comments followed Exxon’s disclosure last week that it is shifting half its worldwide drilling budget to US shale fields next year.
One of the projects is the construction of an ethane cracker at Exxon’s Baytown, Texas, chemical complex that began in June 2014 and was projected to employ 10,000 construction workers and spur 4,000 additional full-time positions. Another was the expansion of Exxon’s Mont Belvieu, Texas, polyethylene plant, where work began at about the same time. The company did not say how much the investments would cost.
“This is exactly the kind of investment, economic development and job creation that will help put Americans back to work,” Trump said in a statement. “Many of the products that will be manufactured here in the United States by American workers will be exported to other countries, improving our balance of trade.”
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