Exxon to invest $20B in Gulf Coast, 45,000 jobs

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Exxon Mobil Corp. is spending $20 billion through 2022 to expand its chemicals and fuel-making capacity in Texas and Louisiana to transform U.S. shale oil and natural gas into products for growing consumer markets in Asia.

After decades of siting new plants to make plastics, industrial chemicals and motor fuels close to feedstock sources and end markets in the Middle East and East Asia, the shale boom is spurring Exxon to steer construction dollars back to its home country, Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said in remarks prepared for the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston on Monday.

The plans answer a call by President Donald Trump for American companies to boost the number of U.S.-based jobs, and the White House immediately released a statement from Trump praising the announcement. The 11 new chemical, refining and LNG projects on the Gulf Coast will create 45,000 jobs, many of which will pay an average of $100,000 a year, Woods said.

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