HOUSTON, June 1 (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) Chief Executive Darren Woods mentioned on Thursday he goals to double the quantity of oil produced from the corporate’s U.S. shale holdings over a five-year interval utilizing new applied sciences.

In December, the highest U.S. oil producer postponed for 2 years, to 2027, a aim of pumping as much as 1 million barrels per day within the Permian Basin, the highest U.S. shale discipline, citing COVID-19 pandemic delays. It additionally launched the five-year expertise improvement program on the similar time, Exxon mentioned.

“We are beginning to see the signs of some very promising new technologies” that may “significantly improve recovery” volumes, Woods mentioned on the Bernstein Strategic Decisions convention.

Exxon at present recovers about 10% of shale sources from its operations, he mentioned.

A primary wave of recent shale expertise might come by fracking alongside for much longer lateral nicely segments, and higher conserving the fracks open so extra sources movement, he mentioned.

“My challenge to the organization was to double recoveries and to find technologies that could unlock that,” Woods mentioned. “There is still a lot of oil being left on the ground.”

In December, Exxon set a brand new aim to succeed in between 900,000 barrels per day and 1 million barrels per day within the Permian by 2027, with 9% to 11% manufacturing progress there this yr.

Woods mentioned growing expertise in-house finally will enable Exxon to raised determine acquisition targets.

“It is not a consolidated field yet,” Woods mentioned, including that the technique creates “a bigger and bigger deal space.”

Reporting by Sabrina Valle; modifying by Gary McWilliams, Bill Berkrot, Leslie Adler and David Gregorio

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