Strategy: Grow profitably by using our competitive advantages to maximize value from existing assets and capture new opportunities.
We are well positioned to grow our business profitably. We have a large resource base, a world-class inventory of projects and are recognized for our innovative application of technology.
Long-Term Growth
In Upstream and Gas, we are making steady progress toward growing production to 3.3 million barrels per day by 2017. We currently have more than 750,000 barrels per day of major capital projects in construction. Among these are the Gorgon and Wheatstone liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects offshore Western Australia, and the 2012 planned startups of the Angola LNG facility and the Usan Field offshore Nigeria. Additionally, we have a number of other projects in the design and evaluation stages. Among these are a major expansion of the Tengiz and Korolev fields in Kazakhstan, a fourth train at the Gorgon development, and the full-field steamflood of the Wafra Field in the Partitioned Zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
In Downstream and Chemicals, our refining operations are well positioned in North America and the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region. We also have strong positions in additives, petrochemicals and lubricants. A new plant under construction at our Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery will make us the world's largest manufacturer of premium base oil, the main ingredient in the production of top-tier motor oil.
Exploration
Over the past 10 years, we discovered on average 1 billion barrels of oil-equivalent resources per year. Our average annual success rate was 49 percent from 2002 through 2011, one of the best among the major international oil companies. Since 2009, we have added more than 18 million net acres to our exploration portfolio. Some of our most promising prospects are the deepwater regions of western Africa, Brazil, Canada, China, Norway and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. We also are active in the Carnarvon Basin offshore Western Australia, where we made a string of discoveries that are expected to grow our Australian LNG projects. We also are exploring for shale gas in Canada, China, Poland, Romania and the United States.
Shale Gas
We see growth opportunities in shale gas. During the year, we completed our acquisition of Atlas Energy, Inc., which held a premier position in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale, and announced the addition of another 228,000 net leasehold acres in the area. In 2011, we drilled our first shale gas wells in Poland and Canada. In China, we are working with the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp.), the country's largest crude oil producer and refiner, to assess shale gas opportunities in the Guizhou province in the southwestern part of the country. Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas as technologies have advanced for horizontal drilling and well stimulation.
To learn more about our growth opportunities, go to our Upstream and Gas and Downstream and Chemicals discussions. For a look at how we are using technology to grow our business, go to our discussion on Technology.
Posted: April 2012