Exxon Mobil is in Abu Dhabi this week at the World Future Energy Summit, preaching its ” in a green world, carbon is king” gospel.
The Arlington, Texas company — and its competitors — have long argued that a green, carbon-free world is an elusive pipe dream. Energy demand from key developing nations like China and India, they say, is too big to rely on carbon-free fuels alone.
That’s the message Exxon’s Emil Jacobs, vice president of research and development, had for the delegates at the World Future Energy Summit.
He said:
Meeting our many energy challenges requires a multidimensional approach. We need to put in place programs and policies that help us find new energy supplies, increase energy efficiency, and discover the innovations that can reduce the environmental impact of greater energy use.
Jacobs’s call to find “new energy supplies” is a loose term that means several different things. It includes not only investments in renewable biofuels, but also in traditional oil and gas exploration and production.
Of note: At Exxon, Jacobs oversees the company’s ongoing $600 million investment in algae-based biofuel developer Synthetic Genomics.
On algae-based biofuel, Jacobs said that significant work and years of research and development remain before production goes commercial, giving oil and gas production plenty of room to grow.
Underscoring this pro-carbon stance was Exxon’s acquisition in December of natural gas exploration and production company XTO Energy in an all-stock deal valued at $31 billion.
Exxon is not alone in propping up its hydrocarbon business. At BP, CEO Tony Hayward has cut his company’s investments in renewable energy, using all available cash to prop-up its core oil and gas business. “Our industry must continue to find and develop new sources of oil and gas,” Hayward said in a speech last year.