Chemical Week Magazine.doc

附件：Chemical Week Magazine :: Cover Story June 27, 2007 ExxonMobil Chemical Robert Westervelt in Houston ExxonMobil Chemical has been able to tap significant profit where most integrated oil majors have quit or stumbled by containing costs and exploiting the benefits of refinery and upstream integration. “Our strategies have not changed and they’re not unusual strategies,” says ExxonMobil president Michael Dolan. “Other companies say similar things. But what differentiates ExxonMobil is how we execute.” Those strategies include exploiting integration benefits with other ExxonMobil operations, a focus on operational excellence, disciplined investment, and technology leadership, Dolan says. ExxonMobil Chemical profits hit a record $4.4 billion in 2006, up 10% from 2005. Only Sabic was more profitable among global chemical makers. Chemical revenues overall advanced 13%, to $48.9 billion, including intra-company transfers, placing it third globally behind Dow Chemical and BASF. ExxonMobil is planning a major petchem production expansion in Asia and the Mideast that will boost capacity there by more than 60% over the next few years. The company also plans to expand its specialty chemical businesses, which accounts for 22% of capacity and is growing at twice the rate of its overall chemical business. “We have a very long-term focus,” Dolan says. “We don’t do anything because it’s trendy or even because it is timely. We do projects because they are advantaged and will make money for shareholders. We try to move quickly when that makes sense, or we can take our time to work through issues and problems to get the best result.” Advantage can come in many forms, Dolan says. “It could involve feedstock, scale, or a unique product slate.” he says. “We don’t want to do the trendy ‘me-too’ projects. Our intention is always to run these plants for 50 years.” ExxonMobil Chemical makes up a fairly small part, 10%-15%, of overall ExxonMobil revenues, but it plays a critical part in the company’s strategy “to upgrade every molecule to the highest value.” About 90% of ExxonMobil’s chemical production is integrated with refinery or upstream gas processing operations. “We make sure we do integration better than everyone else,” Dolan says. “We work relentlessly to mine those synergies and make sure there are no fences between operations.” Benefits from chemical and refinery integration and cost-savings generate $700 million/year in before-tax earnings for the company, ExxonMobil says. A key driver is the effort to more efficiently manage feedstock streams across its refineries and chemical plants to realize the highest value. “In the last few years we have made great progress with our molecule management programs,” Dolan says. Sophisticated modeling allows ExxonMobil to “fingerprint” feedstocks to determine precise product yields and the impact each product will have on utilization and efficiency at its chemical plants and refineries. “At an integrated site like Baytown, TX, you can move feedstock between a refinery catalytic cracker or chemical steam cracker,” he says. “We can select on a day-by-day or cargo-by-cargo basis what to run,” he adds. “You can’t do that unless you have chemical, refining, and supply personnel all working closely together.” Cost Advantage. ExxonMobil says that its cracker feedstock cost advantage averages 20%, versus gas crackers in the U.S. and naphtha crackers elsewhere in the world. That advantage has boosted return on capital employed (ROCE) for its commodity business by 5 percentage points. ExxonMobil says that 55% of its current ethylene production is from “advantaged” feedstocks, and it is targeting growth in use of such feedstocks of 4%-5%/year. “For example, last year we qualified more than 100 new steam-cracking feedstocks of varying qualities from around the world to run in our plants,” says Sherman Glass, senior v.p. at ExxonMobil Chemical. Also, “produciblity” gains, or running plants with fewer interruptions, has added capacity equivalent to one-and-a-half world-scale crackers since 2001, the company says.Strong industry conditions have lifted results for most companies, but ExxonMobil has outpaced its peers. The company’s ROCE improved 5.2 percentage points in 2006 to 33.2%, nearly 20 points higher than key competitors in the U.S. and Europe. That is shy just two-tenths of a percentage point of the company’s record set at the 1995 industry peak. ExxonMobil has averaged 16% ROCE over the past 10 years. Chemical operations at traditional oil competitors ChevronTexaco and Shell averaged 5% ROCE over the past 10 years, and Dow Chemical has averaged 11%. “We are clearly leading competitors in ROCE, and have done so for the entire business cycle,” says J. Stephen Simon, senior v.p./downstream for Exxon Mobil Corp. “With continued delivery of self-help improvements and technology advancements, coupled with the major growth opportunities we are pursuing, we’re w。