Liam Denning, Columnist

Exxon Spells Out Why It Needs the Permian

Most items in its queue promise only long-term payoffs.

March 22, 2017 at 4:02 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

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Exxon Mobil Corp.'s annual operations review, which dropped on Wednesday morning, could have been subtitled "Thank God for the Permian."

It formed a coda to the shale-centric strategy laid out by new CEO Darren Woods three weeks ago. In the review, Exxon lays out its queue of major projects scheduled to start up in the next few years and beyond. It is a long list. But it makes the case for a swing back into West Texas far better than any slide deck.