Exxon Mobil marks first failure to replace production with new discoveries in 2 decades

U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil said on Friday that it failed to replace its oil and natural gas production last year with new discoveries and acquisitions for the first time in 22 years.

In a statement issued on Friday, the American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Texas said that its reserve-replacement ratio dropped to 67 percent last year, but prior to that, the company had achieved ratios of 100 percent or higher for 21 consecutive years.

The world's largest oil explorer held reserves equivalent to 24.8 billion barrels of crude as of Dec. 31, enough to continue current rates of production for 16 years, but that is down from 17.4 years or reserves life at the end of 2014.

Last year, Exxon Mobil increased reserves in such countries as Abu Dhabi, Angola, Kazakhstan and Canada. The company's gas reserves in the U.S. fell by the equivalent of 834 million barrels as falling prices for furnace and power-plant fuel made some fields unprofitable to drill.

The reserve-replacement ratio is a key measure for oil producers, investors and analysts to evaluate a company's long-term ability to maintain or expand crude and gas output.

Meanwhile, Chevron said on Friday that it is placing all of its shallow Gulf of Mexico acreage up for sale with a goal of unloading the assets by the end of 2017.

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, the U.S. multinational energy corporation aims to cut costs and reduce assets deemed unnecessary as the oil prices stand at 30 U.S. dollars a barrel.

In a statement on Friday, a Chevron spokesman said that the divestment, which will begin this year, is expected to be finished by the end of next year.

Chevron is accelerating the sale of mature shelf properties and has begun marketing all shelf assets in the Gulf of Mexico, the spokesman said, adding that the company is targeting between 5 billion and 10 billion dollars in asset sales globally by the end of next year. Endi