Exxon takes Canadian oil sands off its books in historic reserves revision By Kevin Crowley on 2/25/2021
HOUSTON (Bloomberg) Exxon Mobil erased almost every drop of oil-sands crude from its books in a sweeping revision of worldwide reserves to depths never before seen in the companyâs modern history.
Exxon counted the equivalent of 15.2 billion barrels of reserves as of Dec. 31, down from 22.44 billion a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The companyâs reserves of the dense, heavy crude extracted from Western Canadaâs sandy bogs dropped by 98%.
In practical terms, the revision clipped Exxonâs future growth prospects until oil prices rise, costs slide or technological advances make it profitable to drill those fields. Exxon has enough reserves to sustain current production levels for 11 years, down from 15.5 years a year ago, based on Bloomberg calculations.
Exxon Casts Out Canadan Oil Sands in Massive Reserves Slump msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Exxon Mobil Corp. pledged to safeguard its mammoth dividend after posting its first annual loss in at least 40 years, a show of defiance by an oil driller besieged by activist investors, lawmakers and climate-change campaigners.
Exxon assured investors of its financial health in a world of $50-a-barrel oil and promised that if crude were to dip to $45 it would sacrifice spending in the name of dividends. The Western world’s largest oil explorer has so far avoided the sort of payout cuts adopted by rivals Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc.
The dividend pledge comes on the heels of a $19.3-billion writedown of U.S. natural gas and other assets, and the lowest production since the 1999 Mobil Corp. merger. Cash flow from operations – a key gauge of corporate strength – shrank by almost 9% during the final three months of 2020 to $4 billion. Investors looked past all that and boosted the stock by 1.5% to $45.60 at 8:26 a.m. in New York.