Oil Buffet: Exxon Places $60B Shale Bet

Smart money still betting on oil? Buffet had bet $21.5B on Chevron stock & now Exxon bought a shale giant for a whopping $60B. Time to check Pelosi hubby’s stock portfolio? Time US transitions to green more carefully?

If actions speak louder than words, here’s the WSJ’s run down of Exxon CEO’s commitment to green energy in the future, but even bigger commitment to fossil fuels so that his company would stay an oil company first & last: “In 2021, Darren Woods suffered a humbling defeat. A little-known activist investor convinced shareholders to give it 3 seats on the board of the oil behemoth he helms, Exxon Mobil, attacking his big spending & strategy for the shift to green energy. Following the loss, Woods told investors the company had heard their criticisms. The oil boss slashed costs, hired senior executives from outside the company & committed Exxon to a $17B 5-yr plan to cut emissions & build a ‘low carbon’ business. BUT, Woods didn’t pivot Exxon away from fossil fuels, making his largest investments in production & maintaining his conviction that Exxon is, and will remain, an oil company.”

Hence, just 2 years later, Woods “cemented” his commitment to oil by buying West Texas shale behemoth Pioneer Natural Resources. As the Smith Barney commercial suggested, when successful investors speak, smart people listen. And, the message coming from Woods as well as Buffet? One take: A large scale transition to green energy may be inevitable as well as wise so long as it’s done smartly aka carefully over time BUT oil will always be a major player in the energy industry (as well as MANY others, e.g., plastics) and a financially lucrative investment for those with the foresight to proverbially as well as literally see the forest from the trees.

Davd Soul