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Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) Q4 2010 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

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Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM)

Q4 2010 Earnings Call· Mon, Jan 31, 2011

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Exxon Mobil Corporation Q4 2010 Earnings Call Key Takeaways

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Exxon Mobil Corporation Q4 2010 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the ExxonMobil Corporation Fourth Quarter 2010 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, for opening remarks, I would like to turn the call over the Vice President of Investor Relations and Secretary, Mr. David Rosenthal. Please go ahead, sir.

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Your line is open

Good morning, and welcome to ExxonMobil's Fourth Quarter Earnings Call and Webcast. The focus of this call is ExxonMobil's financial and operating results for the fourth quarter of 2010. We will refer to the slides that are available through the investor section of our website. Before we go further, I would like to draw your attention to our customary cautionary statement shown on Slide 2. Moving to slide 3, we have provided an overview of some of the external factors impacting our results. The global economy appears to be stabilizing, with signs of modest growth in the United States and Europe and continued strong growth in the developing world, mainly in the Asia-Pacific and Latin American regions. While crude oil prices remain well above the levels of a year ago, natural gas prices have shown only a moderate increase relative to 2009. Downstream, chemical margins have improved relative to 2009. However, some chemical margins have weakened recently as a result of new industry capacity coming online. Turning now to the fourth quarter financial results as shown on slide 4, ExxonMobil's fourth quarter 2010 earnings excluding special items were $9.3 billion, an increase of $3.2 billion from the fourth quarter of 2009. Earnings per share for the quarter, excluding special items, were $1.85, up $0.58 from a year ago. The corporation distributed more than $7 billion to shareholders in the fourth quarter through dividends and share purchases to reduce shares outstanding. Of that total, $5 billion was distributed to purchase shares. Share purchases to reduce shares outstanding are expected to be $5 billion in the first quarter of 2011. Cap ex in the fourth quarter was $10.1 billion, up $1.8 billion from the fourth quarter of 2009, primarily due to the addition of XTO. We continue to invest in robust projects…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions.] And our first question comes from Ed Westlake with Credit Suisse. Your line is open.

Edward Westlake - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Your line is open

Great results this morning. I guess just maybe thinking about the XTO. We're a few months more into it. What is surprising you? And particularly on the liquids side, if you could give us some details on, say, current production in the back and in Eagle Ford and the potential medium-term outlook for your liquids production elsewhere across the lower 48 portfolio?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Your line is open

First of all, thank you for your initial comment. As you would guess, we are very pleased with how the results turned out in the fourth quarter, and of course the full year 2010. In addition to the financial operating results that I mentioned, I would like to point out that once again we had an excellent year in the areas that really underpin our strong financial and operating results. We had record safety performance, we continued our overall focus on risk management and environmental performance, and generally across the portfolio had a very good year. If we look specifically at XTO, I don't know if I'd call it a surprise, but I can tell you that the integration has gone very, very well. We are very pleased with the way the organizations have come together and been able to seamlessly integrate all the strengths that XTO brought to the merger in addition to being able to quickly utilize some of the technology advantages that ExxonMobil had in order to begin to deliver the type of results that we were expecting in terms of improving production as well as lowering op ex. Attrition has remained low. Activity has increased over the year as you've seen, and as I've mentioned in my script. We have had a number of increases in the areas that I mentioned in my text with the 70 rigs we have running, and there has been some particular focus and making sure we have equipment in the highest priority wells, in particular in the Bakken and Eagle Ford. So all in all, we are very pleased with the integration and how things are going, and I'll also tell you that we will discuss XTO and the integration at length in our analyst meeting in March and we look forward to your participation in that.

Edward Westlake - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Your line is open

And then maybe one follow-on. Specifically, just in the cash flow in Q4. Can you just say what the working capital contribution was to that $13 billion? And obviously your cap ex was up to $10 billion in 4Q. Normally you do spend a lot more money in Q4, but what should we expect in terms of, with the project sanctions, cap ex for 2011?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Credit Suisse. Your line is open

Let's talk about the cash flow first, and then take a look at cap ex. If we look at our cash flow from operations, fourth quarter of 2010 compared to the same quarter last year, of course it's really driven by the higher earnings that we saw and the depreciation and $1.3 billion in asset sales. And that really makes up the bulk of it. The working capital effects were basically negligible, very little. If we look at cap ex in the fourth quarter, it was a strong quarter, fairly typical of what we see in the fourth quarter of most years. We generally see a little higher activity including, of course, partner billings and that sort of thing. But really reflects the ongoing spending in our projects and we'll give you an update for the full year at the March analyst meeting, but it would not be appropriate to take the fourth quarter rate and multiply that by four for 2011. And again, we will give you a fulsome update of our cap ex outlook in March.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Doug Leggate with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open.

Douglas Leggate - BofA Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open

I've just got a couple of things. On the [Barzan] project, can you just talk a little bit about how does that compare to what you already have in Qatar? Are these locally priced contracts? And if you could give an idea what the condensate yield would be so we can kind of figure out what that means for the company in 2014? And I have a followup.

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open

That gas will be priced into the local market and as you would expect that price is certainly going to be less than what LNG trades for on a global basis, but then the investment to produce and deliver that gas, of course, is less. As far as what the condensate yield is going to be, I don't think it's going to be way different than other projects, but it's really too early for me to quote an exact number on that.

Douglas Leggate - BofA Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open

My followup's more of a housekeeping question on the results. Obviously you had, I think you said $1.3 billion on your previous commentary, I thought it was $1.7 in the release of asset sales on cash flow? Anyway, nevertheless, what I'm looking for is what is the actual contribution to net income from gains on asset sales on foreign exchange, just to give us an idea of what the actual underlying [inaudible] number was. And if possible, I know you might be reluctant to do this, but can you give us an idea of what the contribution was from XTO in the quarter? That would be great.

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open

Let me first of all hit the absolute asset sales cash generation, just so that we're all clear on that. The absolute value of asset sales in the fourth quarter was $1.7 billion, and that was an increase from the same quarter last year of about $1.3 billion. If you look at total asset sales across the company, in the fourth quarter, the earnings impact of those things compared to the fourth quarter of 2010, was minimal, around $200 million. We have an ongoing program, as you know, but there was really nothing substantial in the fourth quarter in total different from the prior-year's quarter.

Douglas Leggate - BofA Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open

So the proceeds in the fourth quarter, the $1.7 billion, that was from pre-[inaudible] sales, and that just happened to complete in the fourth quarter? Is that how I should think about it?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open

Yes. That's from the sales that closed in the fourth quarter, and for example would not include the Canada sale that we announced but hasn't closed yet.

Douglas Leggate - BofA Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open

Would you care to give us the XTO contribution?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open

The XTO earnings contribution, or the XTO cash flow contribution?

Douglas Leggate - BofA Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open

Earnings contribution if you have it.

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open

Yes, as you'll see in the 10-K that we'll publish, the fourth quarter total earnings were $120 million, and for the full year about $259 million.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Paul Sankey with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Paul Sankey - Deutsche Bank

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

I hope you won't count this as a question, but could you just give us the volumes associated with XTO as well, and I guess just make sure whether that includes the Fayetteville stuff that you bought?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Sure, are you interested in the full year or the fourth quarter in particular?

Paul Sankey - Deutsche Bank

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Just the comparables for what you just told Doug on earnings.

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

The total volumes on an OEB basis were about 520, and in the third quarter they were about 498, so we're up quarter-on-quarter. And that includes a minimal bit from the acquisitions, but it's really all XTO.

Paul Sankey - Deutsche Bank

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

And then if I could have just a couple more on volumes. First on Iraq, I've read that you're producing about 255,000 barrels a day at West Qurna and if I remember rightly your base production [inaudible] is 244. You want to get to 268 to get to 10% above your base level and hit commercial production. Can you confirm that I'm firstly right on the 255, and secondly, give us an estimate of how long it will take you to hit that 268?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

You're correct on your numbers by and large, and we would expect to hit that 268 by the end of the first half of this year.

Paul Sankey - Deutsche Bank

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

And then how much would you expect the total full-year contribution to be? How much more growth do you think you'll get in '11 over '10?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Oh I don't know, Paul. I don't have that number. It may be a little too early to tell until we can see where we are at the end of the first half and achieve what we're trying to do there. But I will tell you, as I mentioned, we're on track. Plans are progressing well, and I'll tell you we're very pleased with how things are going and we're looking forward to continuing on the plan we are, mobilizing the rigs that we've got contracted out, and really just continuing the progress that we've been making.

Paul Sankey - Deutsche Bank

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Is there anything to add on the water? I think it's called the common sea water supply facility?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

As we mentioned, I think in the past, we're leading that concept selection study and of course what we're trying to do is really provide the sea water that's needed to all the southern Iraqi oil fields for the pressure there. We're currently evaluating the study results, and thinking about what the best way is to proceed, what that timeline might be, and how to go about doing it. But I don't have anything more specific than that today. We're still really looking at it and trying to understand what's in front of us and how we go about working on it.

Paul Sankey - Deutsche Bank

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

And then if I could have just a final one on volume it would Qatar. I was just wondering what your exit rate was relative to your, I guess, nameplate capacity there, and how much, therefore, growth we could expect to see delivering in 2011 again? And that will be my last one.

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

Sure. If I step back I'll say in general all of the facilities that we have started up in Qatar exited the year at capacity. I'll tell you, the run rates and the uptime have just been phenomenal since those projects started up and so we exited the year basically you can think about it as being at full capacity and therefore in terms of a run rate I think we're pretty much spot on.

Paul Sankey - Deutsche Bank

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

And therefore the capacity will stay approximately the same in 2011?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is open

I think by and large you would expect it to be generally about the same. Might be up just a little bit, but I think generally about the same.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Jason Gammel with Macquarie. Your line is open.

Jason Gammel - Macquarie Research

Analyst · Macquarie. Your line is open

I want to ask a couple of questions on your unconventional natural gas portfolio, starting with the Horn River. My understanding is that other operators in the Horn River area have reported reasonably high levels of CO2 and H2S in the gas stream and that's kind of slowed down their drilling this particular winter campaign. Can you talk about the gas quality that you're encountering, and then also confirm when you would expect significant pipeline capacity would be in place to allow you to actually move those volumes to market?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Macquarie. Your line is open

As you know, Horn River is a key focus area in our global unconventional portfolio, in particular in North America. We do have continued active drilling underway in our wells. We're testing those, both our wells as well as wells we have in a joint venture. I'll tell you those wells are performing well and they successfully verified the presence of multiple productive reservoir areas on our lease holds. Without giving totals, we're seeing average test rates of anywhere from a 0.5 to 1.5 million cubic feet a day from a single frak, so we're happy with that. In terms of your question on CO2 and H2S, I'll tell you while we're continuing our evaluation on that, I really don't have any information and couldn't comment on that specific question.

Jason Gammel - Macquarie Research

Analyst · Macquarie. Your line is open

Okay, that's fine. And just a quick followup before I ask my second question, that's per-frak stage you're getting 0.5 to 1.5, and you would theoretically be looking at something on the order of 10-12 frak stages there?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Macquarie. Your line is open

Yeah, that would be about right, maybe a little bit more than that.

Jason Gammel - Macquarie Research

Analyst · Macquarie. Your line is open

And the second question, I believe one of your executives was quoted as saying that [inaudible] in Westfalia would have about 2,100 billion cubic meters of gas potential. I appreciate that you talked about drilling a couple of CBM wells in Germany over the course of the quarter, but given that type of a resource phase when would you expect to really start ramping up drilling activity and putting 10-15-20 rigs into the field?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Macquarie. Your line is open

Well, as we come off of what's been a very successful 2009 and 2010 program, whereas we talked about before we've been testing wells both in the shale plays as well as in now in the coal bed methane, and those are going very well. As we look into 2011 we are going to be continuing with our drilling program, again both CBM and shale gas. We are still evaluating the wells that we have been drilling, and we're in the early evaluation stages. You know, it's kind of like the U.S. unconventional of several years ago. What I can tell you is we did drill our first two coal bed methane wells last year. We're taking a look at those and then we'll really be determining what the exact drilling plan is going into this year. But we would expect that to ramp up a little bit and in fact we're getting ready to spud a well on the western side of the lower Saxony acreage here in the first quarter. So progressing right along, kind of what you'd expect in an evaluation stage of a very large resource potential, and hopefully as the year progresses and we have more well results we'll be able to give a little more, better outlook on what to expect in terms of timing and activity.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from Mark Gilman with The Benchmark Company. Your line is open.

Mark Gilman - The Benchmark Company

Analyst · The Benchmark Company. Your line is open

First, on the Barzan project, I guess there's maybe a little bit of confusion with respect to your working interest in the project. Your F&O from last year says 10%. I've seen references to 7% in the trades. Could you clarify what that is and my assumption that it's a production sharing contract. Is that accurate? And then I also have a followup.

David Rosenthal

Analyst · The Benchmark Company. Your line is open

Sure, let me start with the first part on our working interest. I can confirm that it is 7%. As we go forward with the project, in terms of what type of fiscal arrangement we have, we're still finalizing those agreements and I really don't have any comments in terms of other specificity at this point.

Mark Gilman - The Benchmark Company

Analyst · The Benchmark Company. Your line is open

My followup relates in general to Iraq and how you're accounting for it both in terms of production as well as earnings, and I was hoping you might be able to tie your response in that regard to what looks to me to be an unusual price-spend variance. On slide 17 in your presentation, where price-spend factors versus the third quarter increased volumes by 39,000 a day, if I'm interpreting it correctly. Is there an Iraq element to this? Or exactly what's driving that?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · The Benchmark Company. Your line is open

Sure Mark, I'd be happy to hit both of those. Let me start with the second one first. If we're looking at sequential volumes between the fourth quarter and the third quarter, the price and spend impact you saw there of 39,000 barrels a day. That was really generally attributable to much higher activity across a number of countries. We saw a much higher level of spending and again, just across West Africa and a number of other places, but nothing out of the ordinary. If we back up and talk about your Iraq question, we have not booked any significant production or earnings or any of that sort of stuff yet this year. Obviously that will come on later in the year when we hit our improved production target and then as that progresses, we'll be able to get more information on that. But I can tell you in 2010 there just wasn't anything to talk about.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Paul Cheng with Barclay's Capital. Your line is open.

Paul Cheng - Barclay's Capital

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

Talking about Iraq, given that you're sort of the service contract, from an accounting standpoint are you guys going to be able to book reserves related to Iraq? [How are you going to attribute it?]

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

I think as I mentioned before, and would still say today, we do have an expectation that we'll be able to book reserves associated with our Iraq business.

Paul Cheng - Barclay's Capital

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

So should we assume that you did book reserves related to Iraq in 2010?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

We'll be giving an update on our reserves performance here in a couple of weeks and I really wouldn't want to get out ahead of that release on either in total or in any specific country.

Paul Cheng - Barclay's Capital

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

Okay, that's fine. On XTO, you're saying the total production in the fourth quarter is 520,000 [inaudible] per day? Can you break out for us what is between the liquids and the gas side?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

Sure, liquids production was 87 kbd, and then gas production was about 2.6 ncfd.

Paul Cheng - Barclay's Capital

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

And that $120 million, the net income, are you talking about for [inaudible] net of hedging? Or before hedging I should say.

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

Yes. Let's remember the discussion we had last quarter. There's some hedging that goes into earnings, and some that just goes into cash flow. And as you'll see, if I break the $120 million up, it's about $84 million associated with the derivative impact in earnings and about $36 million in the base.

Paul Cheng - Barclay's Capital

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

The $120 million is the net income you reported, right?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

Yes. In our earnings. Yes.

Paul Cheng - Barclay's Capital

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

Right. And what's the $84 then? The mark-to-market loss or this is the realized hedging gain that you referred to?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

No. If you think about when we completed the acquisition and we had the mark-to-market all of the hedges at the time, what flows to earnings after that - of course the original booking is based on the [inaudible] - what flows to earnings after that is gains that you make on those hedges as gas prices drop. And so it's that piece that then flows to earnings, and we saw that in the third quarter and then again on the fourth quarter.

Paul Cheng - Barclay's Capital

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

So if I look at it without hedging, the impact [inaudible], then the earnings is $36 million only?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

Yes, that would be the answer for the fourth quarter.

Paul Cheng - Barclay's Capital

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

And a final one from me, any update for Poland?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

Sure, I'd be happy to give you an update where we are in Poland. As you know, we have a lot of acreage there and we've been analyzing that, running seismic and doing things really to get ready for a drilling campaign. We do expect as we head into this year we're going to have a couple of wells. In fact, we spud our first well in December, and we would expect to have a couple of those completed this year and really give us an opportunity to just get an early look at that. But I stress an early look, because we're just at the beginning stages of evaluating what we have in Poland. But as part of our global unconventional resource portfolio this is certainly one we're excited to move forward and get the evaluation of that resource under way.

Paul Cheng - Barclay's Capital

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

Do you have a total number of wells you target in Poland for this year?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Barclay's Capital. Your line is open

The total number of wells as we look across 2011, I don't have a total outlook for you other than I know we're going to drill the first two. We'll see how those go, what we learn, and then later on in the year we can probably give you a full year outlook.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Faisel Khan with Citi. Your line is open.

Faisel Khan - Citi

Analyst · Citi. Your line is open

Just had a question on the accounting side. Your effective tax rate dropped sequentially from the third quarter of '10 to the fourth quarter of '10. I was wondering how much of that is the function of the mix of earnings coming from I guess lower tax jurisdictions versus kind of end of the year effects?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Citi. Your line is open

You know, that's an excellent question, and I can tell you it's basically all due to just the mix of both the businesses, between the upstream, downstream, and chemical, as well as the mix in geographies. But that's really it in a nutshell.

Faisel Khan - Citi

Analyst · Citi. Your line is open

Okay, understood. And then on the U.S. chemical side, it looks like prime product sales dropped pretty precipitously the third quarter of '10 to the fourth quarter of '10? I'm just wondering what's driving that large drop off in sales?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Citi. Your line is open

It's really the impact of a major turnaround we have going on at Beaumont.

Faisel Khan - Citi

Analyst · Citi. Your line is open

Okay. Would you say that had a major impact on the earnings number for the quarter?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Citi. Your line is open

It didn't have a major impact. It's part of the volume effect, but the biggest impact we saw quarter-on-quarter was the rapid rise in feed stock cost that really outpaced price increases as we went through the quarter.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Blake Fernandez with Howard Weil. Your line is open.

Blake Fernandez - Howard Weil

Analyst · Howard Weil. Your line is open

Question for you on Brazil. I was hoping maybe you could give us a status update - A) if you could confirm the recent dry hole there and then B) elaborate on any future plans?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Howard Weil. Your line is open

Sure, let me step back just a second and give you an update kind of in general on Brazil. The well that we completed in the fourth quarter, the Sabia well, did encounter non-commercial quantities of hydrocarbons, so it was expensed in the fourth quarter. As we look across the block, we are continuing to analyze data from all three wells that we drilled in the block. As you would guess, a block that size and those three wells and different locations and complexities, there's a lot to look at and analyze with our co-venturers. But we're going to take some time, review all of that information, and then determine the next steps for our evaluation plan for the block. So we've got a lot of information, and there's a lot of analysis to do, and as we progress what we're going to do next, we'll provide that update in subsequent quarters.

Blake Fernandez - Howard Weil

Analyst · Howard Weil. Your line is open

And my second question was on the Gulf of Mexico. I'm just curious if you have any experience to date with permitting, what the status is on the well containment system, and if that's being embraced by the BOEM?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Howard Weil. Your line is open

Sure, let me start first with the drilling. The most important well we have is the Hadrian-5 well. You might recall that was an appraisal well on our oil discovery up in Keathley Canyon. We were just about to commence operations when the moratorium started. I can tell you that a revised permit application has been submitted to the BOEM and we're waiting on their approval. We feel like we've submitted all the information that's required and we are anxiously awaiting those permits to be approved so that we can get after that well. When we talk about the marine well containment system, we continue to make really good progress on the overall, the larger project that we talked about. We also have work continuing on the interim and expanded containment systems that we can have available literally very soon. I think the interim system, everybody can look forward to that being available here very quickly, and then the larger one that we've talked about before a little later on. So good progress being made there, and we look forward to getting both of those done and getting on with drilling.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Doug Terreson from ISI Group. Your line is open.

Doug Terreson - ISI Group

Analyst · ISI Group. Your line is open

I had a question, first of all about ENP. In Indonesia, the Natuna gas seems to be making some progress and obviously this could be significant for you guys at some point. And so I just wanted to see if you'd comment on the next steps for 2011 for that project, and also whether it's likely to be pipeline gas, or LNG, or whether it's too early to know

David Rosenthal

Analyst · ISI Group. Your line is open

Sure. If you look broadly in Indonesia, of course this was a big year for us with the progress we're making in Cepu, the wells that we successfully drilled here last year. So that's progressing. You did note Natuna. Yes, there has been progress in there. In December we signed a heads of agreement with Pertamina, and that's going to provide us a framework for negotiation of a new production sharing agreement with the government, and we look forward to progressing those discussions and getting mutually agreeable [terms] for development sometime later this year. So we would expect that to progress further. Now, as we look at Natuna in terms of the ultimate disposition of the gas, or how we're going to get that gas to market, obviously as you would guess we're looking at how we're going to maximize the value of that resource, but I'll tell you, it's too early to comment which way we're leaning, okay?

Doug Terreson - ISI Group

Analyst · ISI Group. Your line is open

I see. And also, chemicals results were great, and so my question is do you have the annual earnings breakdown yet between the specialty and the commodity businesses?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · ISI Group. Your line is open

Sure, I have that, but I will say to start off with, when you look at our chemical earnings we saw tremendous strength in both the commodity and the specialty business. The commodity business did exactly what you would expect when you have an ability to leverage your feed stock advantage. And then the specialty business, we saw nice volume increases in there, and with the margins that we have. And then if we look at the full year basis for those I think the commodity piece of that was the bulk of the year. Certainly the bulk of the year to year increase, I can tell you that. I don't have the absolute values here in front of me, but it drove the bulk of the year to year change.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Pavel Molchanov from Raymond James. Your line is open.

Pavel Molchanov - Raymond James

Analyst · Raymond James. Your line is open

First on PNG LNG, we've seen a lot of comments about cost escalations, labor shortages in Australia, and of course recognizing that it's not quite the same scenario in PNG, I was wondering if you have any comments on how that might be affecting your PNG project.

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Raymond James. Your line is open

Sure, I'd be happy to give you an update on the PNG project. It is underway, as I mentioned in my script. We've got infrastructure development underway. We've got a lot of work going on with our contractors. It is progressing right along. But I would tell you that we really haven't seen any impact on the PNG project from the items you noted. We're on track for a 2014 startup. Security, of course, is a very big focus area for us, and I know occasionally in the press you read about security items, but those are being managed with a very comprehensive risk management program in country. So like any project - large, complicated project - there are things that happen from time to time, but nothing out of the ordinary and we remain on track to start up that project on schedule.

Pavel Molchanov - Raymond James

Analyst · Raymond James. Your line is open

And then just a quick followup on Hadrian-5, once you get the permit, if and when that happens, what kind of completion time do you guys expect?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Raymond James. Your line is open

I don't know exactly how long the completion time is expected. I do know that once we get the permit, we're going to be able to get after it and get the well underway. And I would expect it would be typical of any Gulf of Mexico well in that depth of water, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from John Herrlin with Societe Generale. Your line is open.

John Herrlin - Societe Generale

Analyst · Societe Generale. Your line is open

Thank you. Three quick ones. David, you mentioned unconventional activities both in North American and abroad. Could you give us a sense of what spending will be like on unconventional in 2011 versus 2010?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Societe Generale. Your line is open

I don't have an outlook for you yet for 2011. We will talk about that, of course, as part of our cap ex outlook in the analyst meeting in March. So I just have to ask for you to wait until then and we're going to give a pretty fulsome outlook on that business. It will be an active year, but the actual cap ex we'll have to give you in a few weeks.

John Herrlin - Societe Generale

Analyst · Societe Generale. Your line is open

Okay. Next one: With XTO, could you give us a sense of what kind of completion optimization success that you've had? Were you able to increase drilling times, reduce frak costs, that sort of thing?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Societe Generale. Your line is open

I can tell you - of course it's still early, we're only 6 months into this - we have been able to take some ExxonMobil technology and apply it to some of the wells that are being drilled and do some crossover of that. We have seen some success in that regard, but again the specifics of which I think we'll save for, again, a more fulsome discussion at the analyst meeting in March. We'll talk a lot about the integration and the progress we're making. But rest assured, we are transferring technology. We are transferring best practices back and forth, and again, we'll talk more about that in March.

John Herrlin - Societe Generale

Analyst · Societe Generale. Your line is open

Okay. And last one from me, David. What were your net capitalized costs at the end of the year - upstream?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Societe Generale. Your line is open

If you're talking about the total capital deployed in the business?

John Herrlin - Societe Generale

Analyst · Societe Generale. Your line is open

Well no, your net capitalized cost. Like in 2009 it was about $85 billion. I was wondering where you ended up last year.

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Societe Generale. Your line is open

We don't have the segmentation yet for the businesses.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Ian Reid from Jeffries. Your line is open.

Ian Reid - Jeffries

Analyst · Jeffries. Your line is open

Would you mind if I asked you a question about your energy outlook?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Jeffries. Your line is open

Sure, that would be just fine.

Ian Reid - Jeffries

Analyst · Jeffries. Your line is open

What's obvious from that is your more bullish view of natural gas demand versus coal compared to other commentators. I'm wondering if you could just characterize Exxon's view of natural gas versus coal, how it differs to other people, and what's kind of driving the numbers you're coming up with here?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Jeffries. Your line is open

Sure. Well, of course, the primary growth in the usage of natural gas is going to be in power generation, and I think if you've seen our energy outlook you see the growth in that. One of the fundamental reasons for the numbers that we've tabled, of course, is an assumption on cost of carbon, however form that might come, would certainly drive some conversion of coal to gas. I think one of the other things that we have out there as you see the economy ramp up and as you see the demand for power generation to ramp up, certainly the source of electricity generation that can be brought on the quickest, particularly here in the U.S., is fueled by natural gas. So if you're looking short-term increased industrial demand, increased need for power generation and electricity, and then longer term as we go out and look at the dynamics, the assumption that there will be some cost of carbon included. And as you know, natural gas has 60% less GHG emissions than a typical coal fired plant does, so you'll have an inherent competitive advantage.

Ian Reid - Jeffries

Analyst · Jeffries. Your line is open

Okay. Thanks for that. Can I ask a question on the results? In European gas, are you seeing further pressures from your customers for your oil linked gas to try and renegotiate the contracts to try and reduce the oil linkage and to focus that more on spot?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Jeffries. Your line is open

Certainly if you look at the European gas market this year, it's been a good year, very robust demand, particularly in the fourth quarter. Prices have held up well, and it's been a good market. I tell you, I wouldn't want to comment on specific commercial discussions or commercial agreements that are underway other than saying that the strategy we've implied in Europe, which is both a supply with indigenously produced gas on the continent as well as the ability to bring cargos of LNG out of Qatar into the UK and into the Adriatic and benefit from a nice strong spot market. All of that business, as we look across the year, particularly in the latter half, has been very successful, but I wouldn't attribute that to any one contract that we have in place, or comment about what's going on with those other than to say diversified portfolio, diversified contract mix, divertible cargoes. That strategy has been very healthy for us this year.

Ian Reid - Jeffries

Analyst · Jeffries. Your line is open

You just mentioned divertible cargoes. Is it possible to say what quantity of diverts you managed in the quarter?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · Jeffries. Your line is open

I don't have a specific number for the quarter. I think if you think about in general, we've said the cargoes coming out of Qatar in total about two-thirds of them run out in long-term contracts and the balance are spot and those are divertible, which is kind of how the big picture looks there. And then again, we've benefited very well for that here in the year.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from Jacques Rousseau from RBC. Your line is open.

Jacques Rousseau - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open

Just a quick question on asset sales. I guess in the quarter you said about $1.7 billion of asset sales, which I think was about the same amount as you had sold through the first three quarters. So my question is in prior years you seemed to have sold more in higher commodity price environments. Is that something we should look forward to in the next couple of years, assuming oil and such stays around where it is?

David Rosenthal

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open

That's an excellent question. I have to tell you though, the pace of our asset management program is not driven by swings in commodity prices and margins. We have a fairly robust ongoing program, and it's very disciplined in its approach and we don't have any specific targets year by year or business by business. What you do see, though, and have seen very strongly this past year, is a program where - it sounds simple, but if some assets of ours are worth more to others than they are to us, we're happy to sell them. And that's irrespective - you can do that in a low-price or margin environment. You can do that in a high price environment. But it's really just an ongoing disciplined program, and I wouldn't have an outlook for 2011. We'll just progress the year like we did last year, and see what opportunities are presented.

Operator

Operator

And we have no further questions at this time.