ExxonMobil deal will transform shale and beyond

The major’s $60bn Pioneer purchase signals long-term view of oil demand and a mature consolidated shale industry

Goodbye, ‘Big Oil’; hello, ‘Massive Oil’. There are few superlatives that will do justice to the game-changing tie-up between major ExxonMobil and Texas-based shale player Pioneer Natural Resources. The new company will become the undisputed king of the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, with production of almost 4.5m boe/d dwarfing that of rivals such as Chevron and Shell. The agreement means access to Pioneer’s acreage—seen as the highest quality resource position in the Permian—and would elevate ExxonMobil’s total in-basin resources to 16b boe, with combined output from the basin of around 2m boe/d by 2027. At the close of the deal, ExxonMobil’s Permian production volume would more th