(Reuters) Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, said on Monday it would invest $20 billion through 2022 to expand chemical and refining plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The investments at 11 sites should create 35,000 temporary construction jobs and 12,000 permanent jobs, Chief Executive Darren Woods said in a speech at CERAWeek, the world’s largest gathering of energy executives in Houston.
Exxon last month pledged to boost this year’s spending by 16 percent to expand operations, especially in shale production, after the company posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by rising oil prices and lower costs.
The quarterly report was Exxon’s first under Woods, after former CEO Rex Tillerson was appointed as U.S. President Donald Trump’s secretary of state.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
