ExxonMobil Corporation plans to invest approximately $185 billion over the next five years to develop new supplies of energy to meet expected growth in demand, chairman, president and CEO Rex W. Tillerson said Thursday in a presentation at the New York Stock Exchange. Major downstream projects include facilities in Singapore and a JV refinery project in Saudi Arabia. "During challenging times for the global economy, ExxonMobil continues to invest to deliver the energy needed to underpin economic recovery and growth," Tillerson said. Even with significant efficiency gains, ExxonMobil expects global energy demand to increase by 30 percent by 2040 compared with 2010 levels. Demand for electricity will make natural gas the fastest growing major energy source and oil and natural gas are expected to meet 60 percent of energy needs over the next three decades. To help meet that demand, ExxonMobil is anticipating an investment profile of approximately $37 billion per year until 2016. "An unprecedented level of investment will be needed to develop new energy technologies to expand supply of traditional fuels and advance new energy sources," said Tillerson. "We are developing a diverse portfolio of high-quality opportunities across all resource types and geographies." A total of 21 major oil and gas projects will begin production between 2012 and 2014. In 2012 and 2013, the company expects to start up nine major projects and anticipates adding over 1mbpd net barrels of oil equivalent (boe) by 2016. Meanwhile, oil prices rose slightly to near $107 a barrel Friday on positive news about Greece's debt crisis and ahead of a key US employment report that will give an insight into the strength of the world's No. 1 economy. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for April delivery was up 31 cents to $106.89 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 42 cents to settle at $106.58 per barrel in New York on Thursday. In London, Brent crude was down 29 cents at $125.15 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
