The result of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5 will not have an effect on oil manufacturing ranges within the quick to medium time period, Exxon CEO Darren Woods instructed CNBC on Friday.
Former President Donald Trump has known as for unconstrained oil and fuel manufacturing to decrease vitality costs and struggle inflation, boiling his vitality coverage down to a few phrases on the marketing campaign path: “Drill, child, drill.”
“I am undecided how ‘drill, child, drill’ interprets into coverage,” Woods instructed CNBC’s “Squawk Field” on Friday after the most important U.S. oil and fuel firm reported third-quarter outcomes.
Woods stated U.S. shale manufacturing doesn’t face constraints from “exterior restrictions.” The U.S. has produced document quantities of oil and fuel in the course of the Biden administration.
Over the previous six years, the U.S. has produced extra crude oil than another nation in historical past, together with Saudi Arabia and Russia, in line with the Power Data Administration.
Output within the U.S. is pushed by the oil and fuel business deploying know-how and funding to generate shareholder returns primarily based on the break-even value of manufacturing, the CEO stated.
“Actually we would not see a change primarily based on a political change however extra on an financial surroundings,” Woods stated. “I do not suppose there’s anyone on the market that is creating a enterprise technique to reply to a political agenda,” he stated.
Whereas shale manufacturing has not confronted constraints on creating new acreage, there are sources in areas just like the Gulf of Mexico that haven’t opened up because of federal allowing, the CEO stated.
“That would, for the long term, open up potential sources of provide,” Wooden stated. Within the quick to medium time period, nevertheless, unconventional shale sources can be found and it is only a matter of creating them primarily based on market dynamics, he stated.
Exxon Mobil shares in 2024.
The overwhelming majority of shale sources within the U.S. are on personal land and controlled on the state stage, in line with an August notice from Morgan Stanley. About 25% of oil and 10% of pure fuel is produced on federal land and waters topic to allowing, in line with Morgan Stanley.
Vice President Kamala Harris opposed fracking throughout her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. She has since reversed that place in an effort to shore up assist within the essential swing state of Pennsylvania, the place the pure fuel business is essential for the state’s economic system.