ExxonMobil keeps focus on getting fundamentals right

Singapore

WITH oil prices on a sharp downtrend over the past few months, it is a challenging time for ExxonMobil's manufacturing business in Singapore. Despite this, the firm's focus is not on where oil is headed, but on running its operations as well as it can.

"We're not in the business of predicting when the bottom of the cycle will take place, or where prices will go," the oil giant's new Singapore chairman Gan Seow Kee said in an interview with The Business Times.

"We're in the business of ensuring that we run our base operations well, safely, reliably, efficiently, and optimised to get the highest value. Then we let the cycle take care of itself."

Three factors have led to tougher conditions for the refining and petrochemicals sector in Singapore. First, the shale revolution in the US has made energy costs and raw materials costs "very much lower" than in Singapore, said Mr Gan. Second, the expansion of export capability in the Middle East has added to supply and third, although demand in Asia is growing, it is doing so at a lower rate than before. "All these factors together result in a challen…