ExxonMobil earns $6.8 billion in third quarter 2021

• Quarterly earnings increased by $7.4 billion versus 2020 on improved demand and strong operations
• Cash flow from operating activities of $12.1 billion funded capital investments, debt reduction, and dividend
• Anticipate future annual capital investments of $20 billion to $25 billion; 4X increase in low-carbon spend
• Expect to be well within debt-to-capital target range by year end; 4Q dividend increased to $0.88 per share
• Starting 2022, share repurchase program of up to $10 billion over 12 - 24 months
• On track to achieve 2025 emission-reduction plans by year end

Oil-equivalent production in the third quarter was 3.7 million barrels per day. Excluding entitlement effects, divestments, and government mandates, oil-equivalent production increased 4% versus the prior-year quarter, including growth in the Permian and Guyana.

“All three of our core businesses generated positive earnings during the quarter, with strong operations and cost control, as well as increased realizations and improved demand for fuels,” said Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer. “Free cash flow more than covered the dividend and $4 billion of additional debt reduction. With the progress made in restoring the strength of our balance sheet, this week we announced a dividend increase maintaining 39 consecutive years of annual dividend growth." 

"Next month, the board will finalize our corporate plan that supports investment in industry-advantaged, high-return projects, and a growing list of strategic and financially accretive lower-carbon business opportunities," added Woods. "The strong returns generated by our core businesses provide the near-term cash flows to fund lower-carbon opportunities that leverage our competitive strengths in technology, engineering and project development. We expect to increase the level of spend in lower-emission energy solutions by four times over the prior plan, adding projects with strong returns as well as seeding some development investment in large hub projects that require further policy support. Retaining flexibility to strike a balance across our different investment opportunities, while maintaining a strong balance sheet, is critical to ensure our business produces accretive, long-term returns and remains resilient under a wide range of future scenarios. We anticipate the company's strong cash flow outlook will enable us to further increase shareholder distributions by up to $10 billion through a share repurchase program over 12-24 months, beginning in 2022."

Third-Quarter Business Highlights

Upstream

• Average realizations for crude oil increased 7% from the second quarter. Natural gas realizations increased 28% from the prior quarter.
• Liquid volumes increased 5% from the second quarter, driven by lower planned maintenance activity. Natural gas volumes decreased 2%, driven by lower demand in Europe.
• During the quarter, production volumes in the Permian averaged approximately 500,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day, an increase of approximately 30% from the third quarter of 2020. The focus remains on continuing to grow free cash flow by lowering overall development costs and increasing recovery through efficiency gains and technology applications.

Downstream

• Fuels margins improved from the second quarter with increasing product demand. Lubricants continued to deliver strong performance, supported by above average basestocks margins, strong performance of the Rotterdam Advanced Hydrocracker, and lower operating expenses.
• Overall refining throughput was up 5% from the second quarter on improved demand and lower planned maintenance activity.
• After Hurricane Ida left much of Louisiana refining and oil production offline, ExxonMobil secured 3 million barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to produce essential fuel supply, delivering record terminal throughput rates to impacted communities and front line workers in the state.

Chemical

• Quarterly earnings of $2.1 billion reflect reliable operations coupled with strong demand, supported by the company's global supply and logistics flexibility.
• Industry margins remain historically strong, but moderated in the quarter driven by increased industry supply.

Capital Allocation and Structural Cost Improvement

• ExxonMobil’s 2021 capital program is expected to be near the low end of the $16 billion to $19 billion range. In the fourth quarter, the board of directors will formally approve the corporate plan, with capital spending anticipated to be in the range of $20 billion to $25 billion annually.
• During the quarter, the company paid down gross debt by an additional $4 billion. Year to date, ExxonMobil has reduced gross debt by $11 billion, and improved the total debt to capital ratio to 25%. The company expects to manage debt within a range of 20% to 25%, ensuring a strong, investment-grade credit rating.
• In addition to reducing structural costs by $3 billion in 2020, the company has captured $1.5 billion in additional structural savings through the first three quarters of 2021. The company is on pace to exceed total structural cost reductions of $6 billion annually by 2023 compared to 2019 levels, with efforts continuing to identify further structural savings by leveraging the corporation's global scale and integration.

Strengthening the Portfolio

• ExxonMobil continued to progress its high-return deepwater developments in Guyana, where discoveries at Pinktail and Cataback increased the estimated recoverable resource base to approximately 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Exploration, appraisal, and development drilling continues, with a total of six drillships currently operating. The Liza Unity floating production, storage and offloading vessel set sail from Singapore to Guyana in the quarter, and remains on schedule for startup in 2022. The third major development, Payara, is on schedule for 2024 startup, and Yellowtail is expected to achieve first oil in 2025.
• In Baytown, Texas, the company plans to build its first, large-scale plastic waste advanced recycling facility, with startup expected by year-end 2022. This facility will be among the largest in North America. In Europe, ExxonMobil is collaborating with Plastic Energy on an advanced recycling plant in Notre Dame de Gravenchon, France, which is expected to process 25,000 metric tons of plastic waste per year when it starts up in 2023, with the potential for further expansion to 33,000 metric tons of annual capacity. These efforts support the company’s aim to build approximately 500,000 metric tons per year of advanced recycling capacity globally over the next five years.

Reducing Emissions and Advancing Low Carbon Solutions

• ExxonMobil plans to grow investments that lower emissions, leveraging the company's technology, scale, integration, and global footprint.  Cumulative low-carbon investments are anticipated to be approximately$15 billion from 2022 through 2027.  The company is also on track to achieve its 2025 emissions intensity reduction plans by the end of 2021, and expects to announce accelerated Scope 1 and Scope 2 reduction plans later this year.
• During the quarter, 11 companies, including ExxonMobil, expressed interest in supporting the large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage technology in Houston. The companies agreed to begin discussing plans that could lead to capturing and safely storing up to 100 million metric tons per year by 2040. Carbon capture and storage is a critical technology in helping society meet its net-zero ambitions, and ExxonMobil has captured more human-made CO₂ than any other company.
• Last week, ExxonMobil announced engineering, procurement, and construction contracts as it plans to increase carbon capture and storage capacity by approximately 1 million metric tons per year at its LaBarge, Wyoming facility. The facility currently captures 6 to 7 million metric tons of CO₂ per year and has captured more CO₂ than any other facility in the world. A final investment decision is expected in 2022.
• ExxonMobil announced its majority-owned affiliate, Imperial Oil Ltd., is moving forward with plans to produce renewable diesel at a new complex at its Strathcona refinery in Edmonton, Canada. When construction is complete, the refinery is expected to produce approximately 20,000 barrels per day of renewable diesel, which could reduce emissions in the Canadian transportation sector by about 3 million metric tons per year. The complex will use locally grown plant-based feedstock and hydrogen with carbon capture and storage as part of the manufacturing process.
• The company signed an agreement with non-profit independent validator MiQ to begin the emission certification process for natural gas produced at Poker Lake facilities in the Permian Basin. Certified lower-emission natural gas validates reduction efforts and helps customers meet their emissions goals. The company has expanded use of aerial LiDAR^TM imaging and SOOFIE methane-detection technologies, and is evaluating additional next-generation applications as part of its ongoing initiatives to detect and reduce methane emissions.

ExxonMobil will discuss financial and operating results and other matters during a webcast at 8:30 a.m. Central Time on October 29, 2021. To listen to the event or access an archived replay, please visit www.exxonmobil.com.

Cautionary Statement

Outlooks, projections, goals, targets, descriptions of strategic, operating, and financial plans and objectives, and other statements of future events or conditions in this release, are forward-looking statements. Actual future results, including financial and operating performance;  total capital expenditures and mix, including allocations of capital to low carbon solutions; cost reductions and efficiency gains,  including the ability to meet or exceed announced cost and expense reduction objectives; plans to reduce future emissions and emissions intensity; timing and outcome of projects to capture and store CO2; timing and outcome of biofuel and plastic waste recycling projects; cash flow, dividends and shareholder returns, including the timing and amounts of share repurchases; future debt levels and credit ratings; business and project plans, timing, costs, capacities, and returns; and resource recoveries and production rates could differ materially due to a number of factors. These include global or regional changes in the supply and demand for oil, natural gas, petrochemicals, and feedstocks and other market conditions that impact prices and differentials for our products; actions of competitors and commercial counterparties; the outcome of commercial negotiations, including final agreed terms and conditions; the ability to access short- and long-term debt markets on a timely and affordable basis; the ultimate impacts of COVID-19, including the extent and nature of further outbreaks and the effects of government responses on people and economies; reservoir performance; the outcome of exploration projects; timely completion of development and other construction projects; final management approval of future projects and any changes in the scope, terms, or costs of such projects as approved; changes in law, taxes, or regulation including environmental regulations, trade sanctions, and timely granting of governmental permits and certifications; government policies and support and market demand for low carbon technologies; war, and other political or security disturbances; opportunities for potential investments or divestments and satisfaction of applicable conditions to closing, including regulatory approvals; the capture of efficiencies within and between business lines and the ability to maintain near-term cost reductions as ongoing efficiencies; unforeseen technical or operating difficulties and unplanned maintenance; the development and competitiveness of alternative energy and emission reduction technologies; the results of research programs and the ability to bring new technologies to commercial scale on a cost-competitive basis; and other factors discussed under Item 1A. Risk Factors of ExxonMobil’s 2020 Form 10-K. 

Frequently Used Terms and Non-GAAP Measures

This press release includes cash flow from operations and asset sales. Because of the regular nature of our asset management and divestment program, we believe it is useful for investors to consider proceeds associated with the sales of subsidiaries, property, plant and equipment, and sales and returns of investments together with cash provided by operating activities when evaluating cash available for investment in the business and financing activities. A reconciliation to net cash provided by operating activities for 2021 periods is shown on page 7 and for 2021 and 2020 periods in Attachment V. 

This press release also includes cash flow from operations and asset sales excluding working capital. We believe it is useful for investors to consider these numbers in comparing the underlying performance of our business across periods when there are significant period-to-period differences in the amount of changes in working capital. A reconciliation to net cash provided by operating activities for 2021 periods is shown on page 7 and for 2021 and 2020 periods in Attachment V. 

This press release also includes earnings/(loss) excluding identified items, which are earnings/(loss) excluding individually significant non-operational events with an absolute corporate total earnings impact of at least $250 million in a given quarter. The earnings/(loss) impact of an identified item for an individual segment may be less than $250 million when the item impacts several periods or several segments. We believe it is useful for investors to consider these figures in comparing the underlying performance of our business across periods when one, or both, periods include identified items. A reconciliation to earnings is shown for 2021 and 2020 periods in Attachments II-a and II-b. Corresponding per share amounts are shown on page 1 and in Attachment II-a, including a reconciliation to earnings/(loss) per common share – assuming dilution (U.S. GAAP).

This press release also includes total taxes including sales-based taxes. This is a broader indicator of the total tax burden on the corporation’s products and earnings, including certain sales and value-added taxes imposed on and concurrent with revenue-producing transactions with customers and collected on behalf of governmental authorities (“sales-based taxes”). It combines “Income taxes” and “Total other taxes and duties” with sales-based taxes, which are reported net in the income statement. We believe it is useful for the corporation and its investors to understand the total tax burden imposed on the corporation’s products and earnings. A reconciliation to total taxes is shown as part of the Estimated Key Financial and Operating Data in Attachment I.

References to the resource base and other quantities of oil, natural gas or condensate may include estimated amounts that are not yet classified as “proved reserves” under SEC definitions, but which are expected to be ultimately recoverable. A reconciliation of production excluding divestments, entitlements, and government mandates to actual production is contained in the Supplement to this release included as Exhibit 99.2 to the Form 8-K of even date herewith. The term “project” as used in this release can refer to a variety of different activities and does not necessarily have the same meaning as in any government payment transparency reports. Further information on ExxonMobil’s frequently used financial and operating measures and other terms including "Cash operating expenses", “Cash flow from operations and asset sales”, "Free cash flow", and “Total taxes including sales-based taxes” is contained under the heading “Frequently Used Terms” available through the “Investors” section of our website at www.exxonmobil.com.

Reference to Earnings

References to corporate earnings mean net income attributable to ExxonMobil (U.S. GAAP) from the consolidated income statement. Unless otherwise indicated, references to earnings, Upstream, Downstream, Chemical and Corporate and financing segment earnings, and earnings per share are ExxonMobil’s share after excluding amounts attributable to noncontrolling interests.

Exxon Mobil Corporation has numerous affiliates, many with names that include ExxonMobil, Exxon, Mobil, Esso, and XTO. For convenience and simplicity, those terms and terms such as corporation, company, our, we, and its are sometimes used as abbreviated references to specific affiliates or affiliate groups. Similarly, ExxonMobil has business relationships with thousands of customers, suppliers, governments, and others. For convenience and simplicity, words such as venture, joint venture, partnership, co-venturer, and partner are used to indicate business and other relationships involving common activities and interests, and those words may not indicate precise legal relationships.

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