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Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) said Wednesday it expects earnings from refined products and chemicals to reach $16B by 2027, ~$4B higher than current levels, as demand continues to rise.
Executives at a briefing at the company’s Spring, Texas, headquarters forecast gasoline demand will not peak until late this decade, in a different outlook from the International Energy Agency, which recently said it expects the use of oil for transportation fuels to decline after 2026.
“Toward the end of this decade we see gasoline demand peaking, but it will be a long plateau,” Senior VP Jack Williams said at the briefing.
Exxon’s (XOM) merged refining, petrochemicals and low-carbon business unit – now positioned to quickly shift between fuels and chemicals based on which delivers the highest profit – will ride market demand for each, said Karen McKee, president of the Product Solutions unit.
The company’s expanded Baytown, Texas, refinery, which is co-located with a chemical unit, will allow it to evolve from primarily making fuels to chemicals, Williams said, adding that “refining is not going to go away, [but] a lot of it will be toward chemicals.”