ExxonMobil to invest $20bn in Gulf Coast manufacturing

ExxonMobil has announced plans to invest a total of $20 billion (£16.5 billion) to expand manufacturing in the US Gulf Coast over a ten-year period, in order to expand its manufacturing and export capacity. These investments, which began in 2013 and will continue until 2022 at least, are expected create more than 45,000 construction and manufacturing jobs across the region.

The initiative, dubbed ‘Growing the Gulf’, consists of 11 major chemical, refining, lubricant and liquefied natural gas projects at proposed new and existing facilities along the Texas and Louisiana coasts.

‘These projects are export machines, generating products that high-growth nations need to support larger populations with higher standards of living,’ said the company’s chairman and CEO, Darren Woods, announcing the programme earlier this month. ‘Those overseas markets are the motivation behind our investments,’ he added.

President Trump praised the ExxonMobil programme, calling it ‘exactly the kind of investment, economic development and job creation that will help put Americans back to work’. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) also applauded the ExxonMobil plan. The ACC’s president and CEO, Cal Dooley, said this investment by ExxonMobil ‘shows the decisive role of American energy in spurring a US manufacturing renaissance, with the chemistry industry helping to lead the way’.