Exxon Mobil Initiates Investment Program With Commissioning Of Its Canadian Oil Sands Project

Oil major enters with Princeton on 5-year, $5 million investment program on energy demand research.

Imperial Oil LTD IMO, Canada’s integrated oil producer and refiner that is majorly owned by Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), has commenced operation of its second phase of $7.5 billion of Kearl oil fields project in northern Alberta, a move that will help to boost its production capacity at its site to 220,000bpd.

It brings all the three production sites in the operating mode, a couple of years after the first initial phase of the project commenced. The startup was much earlier than expected, as the company anticipated beginning in July, but the expected capacity production will not be reached this year, and may likely take a full year for that to happen.

However, the expansion does not end there, as the company is aiming to do further work on boosting or upgrading its existing facilities to push production up to 345,000 bpd by the end of this decade, i.e. at 2020.

Kearl oil sand project is part of the $185 billion, spread over a period of 5 years that the company intends to spend on its CAPEX projects, which are 21 projects despite low oil prices. In addition to Kearl, there are four other projects located in West Africa, as well as the Kashan Phase-1 project in the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan, which are anticipated to be available by fiscal year 2015-16. This will push total production at one million net oil-equivalent bpd (barrels per day).

Recently, the company has also discovered oil located in the area of Vaca Muerta play in central Argentina and there is an ongoing establishment of Hebron offshore oil field in the Canadian provinces of Labrador and Newfoundland, which is likely to produce its first oil in the fiscal year 2017.

Meanwhile, the company has entered into a partnership with Princeton University in terms of a 5-year $5 million pledge to help in facilitating energy demand research, as part of the Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership, which is a global energy research collaborative authority comprising of experts in the energy field and are part of Princeton University.

For its part, Exxon Mobil will assist research groups, consisting of selected graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in areas of interest to both sides. Projects will include short and long-term focus on the environment. Any Exxon Mobil Corporation’s business unit is welcome to visit the campus for an interaction of research projects with any department of the university.

Exxon Mobil’s stock price ended the day at $84.74, a gain of 0.07% from the previous day, following the commission of the Canadian project.