ExxonMobil will only consider M&A if it adds value says CEO

The market for upstream acquisitions is good with low asset values but chief executive Rex Tillerson said the company's criteria was unchanged

ExxonMobil will keep an eye on the market for upstream acquisitions at this time of low asset values but its criteria have not changed, its chief executive Rex Tillerson told the Oil & Money conference in London 7 October. “We are looking for quality assets in terms of people and resources, where we can add value,” he said. Apart from the Anglo-Dutch major Shell bidding for UK BG, there has been little acquisition activity, compared with the price crash at the end of the 90s. It takes a buyer or a seller “a while to sort out the value of a business,” Tillerson said. Owning midstream assets would only be important to ExxonMobil if that would improve the security of its supply, he said. “W