Exxon Chief Backs More Access to Offshore Acreage

ExxonMobil Corp supports legislation that would give companies greater access to offshore U.S. oil and gas acreage, chief executive officer Rex Tillerson said. Two bills that would open up potential oil and gas reserves are being debated in the US Congress. A House of Representatives bill that would end a decades-old moratorium on drilling in federal waters is better than a Senate proposal, which opens tracts only in one section of the Gulf of Mexico, Tillerson said.

Tillerson spoke at an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries seminar in Vienna on the importance of technology in meeting world energy demand. The conference, which is being held in Vienna’s Hofburg Palace, follows an Opec meeting two days ago where members agreed to maintain the group’s production target of 28mn bpd, brushing aside concern by Nigeria, Algeria and others that weaker demand could soon force prices lower.

Technology has enabled companies and oil producing countries in the past 50 years to triple to 3tn barrels the worldwide estimate of the amount of oil that can be produced, Tillerson said. Nanotechnology, the science of building devices from single atoms, rigs that can drill in 1,800m of water, and other advances will help producers meet an expected 50% increase in oil demand by 2030, he said. Source: Bloomberg