The outcome of the November 5 US presidential election will not affect oil production levels in the short to medium term, Exxon CEO Darren Woods told CNBC on Friday.
Former President Donald Trump called for unconstrained oil and gas production to lower energy prices and fight inflation, summarizing his three-word energy policy on the campaign trail: “Drill, baby, drill “.
“I don’t know how drilling, baby, drilling translates into politics,” Woods told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday after the largest U.S. oil and gas company reported third-quarter results.
Woods said U.S. shale production did not face constraints from “external restrictions.” The United States produced record amounts of oil and gas under the Biden administration.
Over the past six years, the United States has produced more crude oil than any other country in history, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, according to the report. Energy Information Administration.
In the United States, production is driven by the oil and gas industry’s deployment of technology and investments to generate break-even-based shareholder returns, the CEO said.
“We certainly wouldn’t see a change based on a political change but rather an economic environment,” Woods said. “I don’t think anyone develops a business strategy to meet a political agenda,” he said.
Even though shale production has not faced constraints in developing new acreage, there are resources in areas like the Gulf of Mexico that have not been opened up due to federal approvals, said the CEO.
“This could, in the long term, open up potential sources of supply,” Wood said. However, in the short to medium term, unconventional shale resources are available and it is simply a matter of developing them based on market dynamics, he said.
Exxon Mobil Stock in 2024.
The vast majority of shale resources in the United States are on private land and are regulated at the state level, according to an August note from Morgan Stanley. About 25% of oil and 10% of natural gas are produced on federal lands and waters subject to permitting, according to Morgan Stanley.
Vice President Kamala Harris opposed fracking during her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. She has since reversed that stance in an effort to build support in the crucial state of Pennsylvania , where the natural gas industry is important to the state’s economy.
