Dan Ammann, the former president of General Motors, has been appointed head of Exxon’s oil and gas business, after serving as head of its low-carbon solutions for two years.
The appointment of Ammann follows the retirement of the current president of the Upstream division, Liam M. Mallon, which will take effect at the start of February.
“These appointments continue the company’s approach of leveraging the diverse skills and experiences of a very accomplished executive team to bring fresh perspectives and approaches to each of our exceptionally talented organizations,” Exxon’s chief executive, Darren Woods, said. “This has served us well over the last several years and is a useful, innovative way to strengthen our leadership teams, challenge conventions and broaden our people.”
Exxon’s latest earnings report showed figures that beat expectations, benefiting from a surge in liquids production to the highest in 40 years. The company booked strong production growth from Guyana and Permian assets including Pioneer assets in the first full quarter of Pioneer integration following the merger.
Earnings in the energy products division, which includes refining and sales, slumped year to date to September, “due to significantly weaker industry refining margins, which declined from historically high levels as supply from industry capacity additions outpaced record global demand,” Exxon said in the release last month.
The company has signaled it has further production growth plans, at least for Guyana. For its U.S. shale operations it seems the stance is more guarded as suggested by recent comments by the outgoing head of Upstream at the supermajor.
“We’re not going to see anybody in ‘drill, baby, drill’ mode,” Liam Mallon said at the Energy Intelligence Forum conference in London in late November.
“A radical change (in production) is unlikely because the vast majority, if not everybody, is focused on the economics of what they’re doing,” the outgoing executive added.
