Liam Mallon:
So it just reminds us, Ken, that the investment required in the oil and gas business to meet even a very aggressive two degrees scenario is significant.
Its in the trillions of dollars, and it will require collaboration, innovation, and technology application at a scale that weve never seen before. You then combine that with the challenge of lowering emissions and decarbonizing the hard
to decarbonize sectors, and again, helping society meet its net zero goals, thats the real challenge that we all refer to.
Liam Mallon:
So the point being in all that is, yes, its an enormous challenge, but it also is an enormous opportunity. For us, the key thing is that in a world where
the uncertainty range is dramatically greater, perhaps, than its ever been, some would argue its not, but I think it is, that being on the left-hand side of the supply
curve in your business is crucially important. Greg talked about lowest cost of supply. I mean, I think for us, we have a portfolio of opportunities that we
havent had since Exxon and Mobil came together. And for us, mission critical is we develop those opportunities at the lowest cost to supply and make them competitive, regardless of that scenario you choose. And I can tell you to do that will
require partnership, collaboration, and technological evolution at a scale that at least will continue to extrapolate on what weve seen in the past.
Liam Mallon:
And Im confident we can do that, but at the
same time as doing that, Ken, all of us in the industry have to do our part to progress society towards a lower carbon, lower emissions outcome. And that is an enormous focus for us as a company. Its an enormous focus for the industry. Just
today, you may have seen, its hot off the press, we went out with a blog today and an op-ed on the concept of a carbon capture and storage innovation hub in the Houston Ship Channel. And you think about what that would entail, potentially
$100 billion of investment, literally tens of thousands of jobs, but to make it happen would require the private sector, academia, government at every single layer of government, the community, to come together in a way and collaborate that we
have never seen before, we have never seen before.
Liam Mallon:
And we fundamentally believe that we can play a key role in that, and the potential of doing something like that, if all the necessary pieces, policy,
regulatory pricing, et cetera, et cetera, were in place, has the potential to take 50 to 100 million tons of CO2 out of the air in the next several years, and its just equivalent to an enormous emissions reduction effort right here in the
City of Houston, taking
advantage of re-injecting carbon or CO2 into the Gulf of Mexico, right beside all the expertise that weve developed over
many, many years. But to do that at scale, Ken, will require us to think about the role of partnerships in a fundamentally different way, way beyond what weve thought about in the past.
Liam Mallon:
So you teed it up. Its going to grow and
expand. I dont see a future where anybody alone can do this. It will be dependent upon effective collaboration of multiple stakeholders, I just think hot off the press, it is a fantastic concept, and it has the potential to create a huge
innovation hub right here in the City of Houston. And its very, very exciting.
Liam Mallon:
We partner with 80 different universities around the world. So 80 different academic institutions, and the five energy centers that you know well. And
primarily around advancing technologies in this whole area of a lower carbon future. Primarily, not solely, but primarily. One thing in terms of shifts, Ken, or strategic shifts, if you like, and Ill come back to a few examples with those
universities that are very exciting, but I think one of the shifts thats going on, certainly for us, but I suspect for the industry, and I think its related to the open data architecture, and the way innovation is happening, is
traditionally, ExxonMobil have had a very, I would say, discipline-oriented approach to research and development.
Liam Mallon:
More and more, what were finding is its the intersection of these sciences thats creating the innovation, and having end use cases that cause
that intersection to come together is shifting the dynamic from in-house developed to much more, I would say, third party, externally developed. So Im not sure how wholesome that trend is, but I suspect its pretty wholesome, but
its certainly something were seeing. So again, to your point, Ken, I see us doing more in the external space, and I think itll be very powerful for this partnership that youre talking about.