埃克森美孚 (XOM) 2021 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Exxon Mobil Corporation Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎參加埃克森美孚公司 2021 年第二季度財報電話會議。今天的電話正在錄音。

And at this time, I'd like to turn the call over to the Vice President of Investor Relations and Secretary, Mr. Stephen Littleton. Please go ahead, sir.

在這個時候，我想把電話轉給投資者關係副總裁兼秘書斯蒂芬利特爾頓先生。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our second quarter earnings call. We appreciate your participation and continued interest in ExxonMobil. I am Stephen Littleton, Vice President of Investor Relations. Joining me today are Darren Woods, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Jack Williams, our Senior Vice President overseeing Downstream and Chemical. In a moment, Darren will make some introductory comments. I will then cover the quarterly financial and operating results, and then Jack and Darren will provide their perspectives on the business. Following those remarks, we will be happy to address any questions.

謝謝大家，大家早上好。歡迎來到我們的第二季度財報電話會議。感謝您的參與和對埃克森美孚的持續關注。我是投資者關係副總裁斯蒂芬·利特爾頓。今天加入我的還有董事長兼首席執行官達倫·伍茲（Darren Woods）；以及我們負責下游和化工的高級副總裁 Jack Williams。稍後，Darren 將做一些介紹性評論。然後我將介紹季度財務和運營結果，然後傑克和達倫將提供他們對業務的看法。在這些評論之後，我們將很樂意解決任何問題。

Our comments this morning will reference the slides available on the Investors section of our website. I would also like to draw your attention to the cautionary statement on Slide 2 and to the supplemental information at the end of this presentation.

我們今天上午的評論將參考我們網站投資者部分的幻燈片。我還想提請您注意幻燈片 2 上的警示性聲明以及本演示文稿末尾的補充信息。

I will now turn the call over to Darren.

我現在將把電話轉給達倫。

Thank you, Stephen, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Before Stephen takes us through the second quarter results, let me start by covering the significant developments in the quarter, starting with the extensive engagement the Board and I had with our shareholders in the months leading up to our annual meeting. We received some very explicit feedback that we found valuable and are incorporating in our plans as we move the company forward. In future, the directors, the management committee and I look forward to continuing the active shareholder engagement and discussing the good work going on at the company and the progress we are making on all fronts.

謝謝斯蒂芬，大家早上好。感謝您今天加入我們。在斯蒂芬帶領我們了解第二季度業績之前，讓我先介紹一下本季度的重大發展，首先是董事會和我在年度會議前幾個月與我們的股東進行的廣泛接觸。我們收到了一些非常明確的反饋，我們認為這些反饋很有價值，並在我們推動公司發展的過程中納入了我們的計劃。未來，董事、管理委員會和我期待繼續積極參與股東，並討論公司正在進行的良好工作以及我們在各個方面取得的進展。

Since our annual meeting, we welcomed our new directors. Greg Goff, Kaisa Hietala and Andy Karsner with a number of discussions that included myself, our Lead Director, Ken Frazier, other Board members and senior managers of the company. In June, we began the new members' onboarding process with in-depth reviews of our businesses and key topics such as our energy outlook and our approach to the energy transition. While the Board has met virtually on a couple of topics since the annual meeting, this week was the first in-person regular meeting of the Board. We had very substantive and productive discussions across both the committees and the full Board that were informed by the extensive shareholder engagements of the past several months.

自我們的年度會議以來，我們歡迎我們的新董事。 Greg Goff、Kaisa Hietala 和 Andy Karsner 與我本人、我們的首席董事 Ken Frazier、其他董事會成員和公司高級經理進行了多次討論。 6 月，我們開始了新成員的入職流程，深入審查了我們的業務和關鍵主題，例如我們的能源展望和能源轉型方法。自年度會議以來，董事會幾乎就幾個主題舉行了會議，本周是董事會第一次面對面的例會。我們在委員會和整個董事會之間進行了非常實質性和富有成效的討論，這些討論得益於過去幾個月的廣泛股東參與。

I'm pleased to say that without exception, our Directors are focused on improving the performance of the company, addressing the challenges faced by our industry and increasing long-term shareholder value. There is very good alignment on the importance of leveraging the diverse experience and skills of the Board; the important role ExxonMobil will have in the transition - helping to lead through the development and deployment of critical technologies, advocating for necessary policy and making strategically and financially accretive investments; the need to improve transparency and engagement with our shareholders, actively listening and more explicitly addressing concerns; and, of course, driving total shareholder return in both the short and long run.

我很高興地說，我們的董事無一例外地專注於提高公司業績、應對行業面臨的挑戰和增加長期股東價值。利用董事會的不同經驗和技能的重要性非常一致；埃克森美孚將在轉型中發揮重要作用——幫助領導關鍵技術的開發和部署，倡導必要的政策，並進行戰略和財務增值投資；需要提高透明度和與股東的互動，積極傾聽並更明確地解決問題；當然，從短期和長期來看，都會推動股東總回報。

While there is still much to do, I think we're working from a very strong foundation. ExxonMobil is proud to be a global leader in the industry. As the energy system evolves with society's needs, we look forward to continuing our role as a leader, helping lead society through the transition, leveraging the deep thinking and analytical rigor of our 20,000 scientists and engineers and the hard work of all of our people.

雖然還有很多工作要做，但我認為我們的工作基礎非常牢固。埃克森美孚自豪地成為該行業的全球領導者。隨著能源系統隨著社會需求的發展而發展，我們期待繼續發揮領導者的作用，利用我們 20,000 名科學家和工程師的深刻思考和嚴謹的分析以及全體員工的辛勤工作，幫助領導社會度過轉型期。

Another important development in the quarter was the addition of Kathy Mikells to our management committee as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On behalf of the Board, the other members of the management committee and our entire organization, I want to welcome Kathy and express how excited we are to have her on board. She joins us formally next month and brings significant CFO and Investor Relations experience from her time at Diageo, Xerox, United Airlines and ADT. In addition to the financial functions, Kathy's portfolio will include Corporate Strategic Planning, Investor Relations and a number of our global business services like IT and Procurement. We look forward to the depth of experience and perspectives she'll bring.

本季度的另一個重要發展是 Kathy Mikells 加入我們的管理委員會，擔任高級副總裁兼首席財務官。我代表董事會、管理委員會的其他成員和我們整個組織，歡迎 Kathy 並表達我們對她的加入感到非常興奮。她下個月正式加入我們，並帶來了她在帝亞吉歐、施樂、聯合航空公司和 ADT 任職期間的重要首席財務官和投資者關係經驗。除了財務職能外，Kathy 的投資組合還包括企業戰略規劃、投資者關係以及我們的一些全球業務服務，如 IT 和採購。我們期待她帶來的豐富經驗和觀點。

While welcoming Kathy, I'd like to also recognize Andy Swiger's retirement, which was also recently announced. I'd like to take the opportunity to express our gratitude for the many contributions Andy has made during his 43 years with the company. He has certainly earned his retirement, and we all wish him and his wife Sherry, the very best.

在歡迎凱西的同時，我還要感謝安迪·斯威格 (Andy Swiger) 的退休，這也是最近宣布的。我想藉此機會對安迪在公司 43 年中所做的許多貢獻表示感謝。他當然已經退休了，我們都祝愿他和他的妻子雪莉一切順利。

Also of significance in the quarter was the continuing market recovery, which obviously underpins our results. As you will hear, the organization remains very focused on continuing to leverage the changes we've implemented over the last several years and on delivering the plans we discussed with you in March. As the market improves, we've maintained a disciplined approach, doing more with less.

本季度同樣重要的是市場持續復甦，這顯然是我們業績的基礎。正如您將聽到的那樣，該組織仍然非常專注於繼續利用我們在過去幾年中實施的變革，並交付我們在 3 月份與您討論的計劃。隨著市場的改善，我們一直保持嚴謹的方法，事半功倍。

We remain focused on delivering industry-leading operating performance, continuing to significantly reduce costs, advancing our portfolio of high return advantaged projects, executing value-accretive divestments and rebuilding the strength of our balance sheet. In addition, as the need for climate solutions beyond wind, solar and electric vehicles grow, we are working to expand our portfolio of strategically and financially accretive low-carbon solutions investments. While still in the early stages, I'm pleased with the progress we're making. I'll come back to this later in the call.

我們仍然專注於提供行業領先的運營業績，繼續顯著降低成本，推進我們的高回報優勢項目組合，執行增值資產剝離並重建我們的資產負債表實力。此外，隨著對風能、太陽能和電動汽車以外的氣候解決方案需求的增長，我們正在努力擴大我們的戰略和財務增值低碳解決方案投資組合。雖然仍處於早期階段，但我對我們正在取得的進展感到滿意。我將在稍後的電話會議中回到這個問題。

At this time, I'll hand it back to Stephen.

這個時候，我會把它還給斯蒂芬。

Thanks, Darren. I will now walk through developments since the first quarter. Across all three businesses, demand recovery has improved results. In the Upstream, liquids realizations improved significantly versus the first quarter. Production was lower due to seasonal gas demand in Europe and higher scheduled maintenance activity, notably in Canada. We continue to explore and progress development in our advantaged deepwater assets with two discoveries announced in Guyana during the second quarter and a third discovery, Whiptail, announced this week. We also completed final investment decision for the Bacalhau development offshore Brazil.

謝謝，達倫。我現在將介紹自第一季度以來的發展情況。在所有三個業務中，需求復甦的結果都有所改善。在上游，與第一季度相比，液體實現顯著改善。由於歐洲的季節性天然氣需求和較高的定期維護活動，特別是在加拿大，產量較低。我們將繼續探索和推進我們優勢深水資產的開發，第二季度在圭亞那宣布了兩項發現，本周宣布了第三項發現，Whiptail。我們還完成了巴西近海 Bacalhau 開發項目的最終投資決策。

In the Downstream, global demand improved in line with economic recovery. However, we did see the impact of regional lockdowns resulting from COVID outbreaks. While there was improved demand for gasoline and diesel, margins continued to be impacted by product oversupply and depressed jet demand driven by lower international travel.

在下游，全球需求隨著經濟復甦而改善。但是，我們確實看到了 COVID 爆發導致的區域封鎖的影響。儘管對汽油和柴油的需求有所改善，但產品供應過剩和國際旅行減少導致的噴氣式飛機需求低迷繼續影響利潤率。

The Chemical business achieved record quarterly earnings with strong reliability and high polyethylene and polypropylene margins, specifically in North America and Europe due to continued strong demand, tight industry supply and ongoing shipping constraints.

由於持續強勁的需求、緊張的行業供應和持續的航運限制，化工業務憑藉強大的可靠性和高聚乙烯和聚丙烯利潤率實現了創紀錄的季度收益，特別是在北美和歐洲。

During the quarter, we announced the sale of our global Santoprene business to Celanese for more than $1.1 billion. The transaction includes two manufacturing sites in Pensacola, Florida and Newport, Wales and is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

在本季度，我們宣布以超過 11 億美元的價格將我們的全球山都平業務出售給塞拉尼斯。該交易包括位於佛羅里達州彭薩科拉和威爾士紐波特的兩個製造基地，預計將於第四季度完成。

Earnings improvements across all businesses resulted in increased cash flow from operations, enabling debt reduction of $2.7 billion in the quarter. Finally, our Low Carbon Solutions business signed 2 MOUs to progress large-scale carbon capture and storage projects in Scotland and France.

所有業務的盈利改善導致運營現金流增加，從而在本季度減少了 27 億美元的債務。最後，我們的低碳解決方案業務簽署了 2 份諒解備忘錄，以推進蘇格蘭和法國的大型碳捕集和封存項目。

Let's move to Slide 5 for an overview of second quarter results. The table on the left provides a view of second quarter results relative to the prior quarter. Earnings, excluding identified items, were $4.7 billion, an increase of approximately $2 billion versus the first quarter, primarily due to higher prices and margins and strong reliability. There was a $700 million hurt compared to the prior quarter from mark-to-market impacts on open financial derivatives for which the physical trading strategy had not closed. We expect to realize the full earnings benefit of these trading strategies when they close in the future.

讓我們移至幻燈片 5，了解第二季度業績的概述。左側的表格提供了相對於上一季度的第二季度業績的視圖。不包括已確定項目的收益為 47 億美元，與第一季度相比增加了約 20 億美元，這主要是由於更高的價格和利潤率以及強大的可靠性。與上一季度相比，按市值計價對實物交易策略尚未結束的開放金融衍生品的影響造成了 7 億美元的損失。我們希望在這些交易策略在未來關閉時實現它們的全部收益收益。

Consistent with prior disclosures, planned maintenance activity impacted earnings by about $800 million in the quarter, and was partially offset by lower corporate expenses and favorable tax items.

與之前的披露一致，計劃中的維護活動在本季度影響了約 8 億美元的收益，並被較低的公司費用和優惠的稅收項目部分抵消。

On the next slides, I will cover a brief summary of quarterly results for each business. Upstream earnings improved more than $630 million compared to the first quarter. Higher prices increased earnings by about $1 billion, partially offset by mark-to-market impacts of unsettled derivatives. Tighter supply-demand balances increased liquids realizations by 12%. Gas realizations also increased, driven primarily by higher European and LNG gas prices.

在接下來的幻燈片中，我將簡要介紹每項業務的季度業績。與第一季度相比，上游收入增加了超過 6.3 億美元。價格上漲使收益增加了約 10 億美元，部分被未結算衍生品的按市值計價影響所抵消。供需平衡收緊使液體變現增加了 12%。主要受歐洲和液化天然氣價格上漲的推動，天然氣實現量也有所增加。

Increased planned maintenance, primarily in Canada and Australia impacted earnings by $360 million. Next quarter, we expect lower levels of planned maintenance.

增加的計劃維護，主要是在加拿大和澳大利亞，影響了 3.6 億美元的收入。下個季度，我們預計計劃維護水平會降低。

Other items were a help of $310 million and included favorable asset management and one-time tax items.

其他項目提供了 3.1 億美元的幫助，包括有利的資產管理和一次性稅收項目。

On the next slide, I will cover a brief summary of Upstream volumes. On average, Upstream volumes decreased by about 200,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day compared to the first quarter. Gas and liquids were both lower in the quarter with seasonal gas demand reductions primarily in Europe, lower entitlements due to higher prices and the planned maintenance activity that I mentioned earlier. These impacts were partially offset by improved reliability, primarily in Canada and the U.S. and recovery from winter storm impacts experienced in the first quarter.

在下一張幻燈片中，我將簡要介紹上游卷。與第一季度相比，上游產量平均每天減少約 200,000 桶石油當量。本季度天然氣和液體均有所下降，主要是歐洲的季節性天然氣需求減少，由於價格上漲以及我之前提到的計劃維護活動導致的權利減少。這些影響被主要在加拿大和美國的可靠性提高以及從第一季度經歷的冬季風暴影響中恢復而部分抵消。

Moving to Slide 8. Downstream earnings improved by approximately $160 million in the second quarter. During the quarter, margins improved by nearly $600 million but were partially offset by the unsettled mark-to-market impacts I mentioned earlier. We had our best-ever lubricants quarterly earnings driven by improved basestock margins. We have also seen demand improve, particularly in North America retail fuels. During the quarter, planned maintenance and turnarounds reduced earnings by $220 million. We optimized the timing of our Downstream maintenance in the first half of 2021, which positions us well for the continuing economic recovery as we move through the year. We also benefited from the absence of the first quarter refinery-to-terminal conversion provision for our Altona, Australia and Slagen, Norway refineries, which was included in the Other factor.

轉到幻燈片 8。第二季度下游收入增加了約 1.6 億美元。在本季度，利潤率提高了近 6 億美元，但部分被我之前提到的未解決的按市值計算的影響所抵消。在基礎油利潤率提高的推動下，我們獲得了有史以來最好的潤滑油季度收益。我們還看到需求有所改善，尤其是在北美零售燃料方面。在本季度，計劃中的維護和周轉使收入減少了 2.2 億美元。我們在 2021 年上半年優化了下游維護的時間安排，這使我們在這一年中為持續的經濟復甦做好了準備。我們還受益於我們的澳大利亞阿爾托納和挪威斯拉根煉油廠沒有第一季度煉油廠到終端的轉換準備金，該準備金包含在其他因素中。

Moving to Chemical on Slide 9. Chemical had its best-ever quarterly earnings, delivering over $2.3 billion, more than a $900 million improvement versus the first quarter. Margins improved by approximately $1.1 billion, reflecting our continued reliable operations and tight industry supply conditions, particularly in the polyethylene and polypropylene markets in North America and Europe. Planned seasonal maintenance and turnarounds in Europe reduced earnings by $180 million.

在幻燈片 9 上轉向化工。化工的季度收益創下歷史新高，超過 23 億美元，與第一季度相比增加了 9 億多美元。利潤率提高了約 11 億美元，反映了我們持續可靠的運營和緊張的行業供應狀況，特別是在北美和歐洲的聚乙烯和聚丙烯市場。歐洲計劃中的季節性維護和周轉使收入減少了 1.8 億美元。

The next slide summarizes results versus the second quarter of 2020. Compared to the second quarter of last year, earnings increased by $7.7 billion, driven by a total price margin improvement of about $6.7 billion and increased sales of $810 million. We had $850 million in planned maintenance as we successfully stretched maintenance intervals out of 2020 into the first half of this year. This positions us well for a continuing economic recovery in the second half of 2021. Structural efficiencies, lower corporate and financing expenses and favorable tax items delivered additional earnings benefits.

下一張幻燈片總結了與 2020 年第二季度相比的結果。與去年第二季度相比，在總價格利潤率提高約 67 億美元和銷售額增加 8.1 億美元的推動下，收益增加了 77 億美元。由於我們成功地將維護間隔從 2020 年延長到今年上半年，因此我們有 8.5 億美元的計劃維護費用。這使我們為 2021 年下半年的持續經濟復甦做好了準備。結構效率、較低的公司和融資費用以及優惠的稅收項目帶來了額外的收益收益。

Slide 11 provides further details on investing and cost management. Excluding energy and production taxes, cash operating expenses were $18.7 billion during the first half of 2021. In addition to reducing structural costs by $3 billion in 2020, the company has captured over $1 billion in further structural savings in the first half of 2021. The company remains on pace to achieve through 2023 total structural cost reductions of $6 billion relative to 2019. The cost associated with turnarounds, winter storm repairs and other market and activity-based factors were a partial offset.

幻燈片 11 提供了有關投資和成本管理的更多詳細信息。不計能源和生產稅，2021 年上半年的現金運營費用為 187 億美元。除了在 2020 年將結構性成本降低 30 億美元外，該公司在 2021 年上半年進一步節省了超過 10 億美元的結構性成本。與 2019 年相比，到 2023 年，公司仍有望實現 60 億美元的總結構成本降低。與周轉、冬季風暴維修以及其他基於市場和活動的因素相關的成本被部分抵消。

Capital expenditures were $3.8 billion in the second quarter and $6.9 billion year-to-date. Consistent with our plans, we started the year with lower levels of investment to provide flexibility for responding to market conditions. We remain on track with full-year spending on the lower end of our $16 billion to $19 billion range. Investments in the second half of the year are expected to be higher due to the timing of spend for major Upstream and Chemical projects, including Guyana, Brazil, Permian and Chemical performance products.

第二季度資本支出為 38 億美元，年初至今為 69 億美元。根據我們的計劃，我們在年初以較低的投資水平為應對市場狀況提供了靈活性。我們的全年支出保持在 160 億美元至 190 億美元區間的低端。由於主要上游和化學項目（包括圭亞那、巴西、二疊紀和化學性能產品）的支出時機，預計下半年的投資將會增加。

Moving on to the summary of cash flow on Slide 12. Cash flow from operating activities was $9.7 billion in the quarter. Excluding working capital effects, this is up about $2 billion from the first quarter, reflecting continued market improvement and ongoing benefits of our cost reductions.

繼續幻燈片 12 上的現金流摘要。本季度經營活動產生的現金流為 97 億美元。不計營運資金影響，這比第一季度增加了約 20 億美元，反映了市場的持續改善和我們降低成本的持續收益。

Consistent with our capital allocation priorities, total debt was reduced to $60.6 billion in the quarter, bringing year-to-date reductions to over $7 billion. We ended the quarter with $3.5 billion of cash.

根據我們的資本分配優先事項，本季度總債務減少至 606 億美元，使年初至今的債務減少超過 70 億美元。我們以 35 億美元的現金結束了本季度。

Turning to Slide 13 for the third quarter outlook. In the Upstream, we expect higher volumes with lower planned maintenance. The sale of the U.K. Central and Northern North Sea assets is now expected to close by the end of the year, subject to regulatory and third-party approvals.

第三季度展望請看幻燈片 13。在上游，我們預計更高的產量和更少的計劃維護。目前預計英國中部和北海北部資產的出售將在今年年底前完成，但需獲得監管機構和第三方的批准。

In the Downstream, we anticipate demand improvement with continued economic recovery. Lower turnarounds and maintenance are planned for the quarter.

在下游，我們預計需求將隨著經濟持續復甦而改善。本季度計劃減少周轉和維護。

In Chemical, we anticipate some easing and the tight supply-demand balance as industry downtime improves and additional capacity comes online. We also expect lower turnaround impacts next quarter.

在化工方面，我們預計隨著行業停工時間的改善和額外產能的上線，供需平衡將有所緩解。我們還預計下個季度的周轉影響會降低。

Corporate and financing expenses are expected to be about $600 million, and we anticipate further debt reductions if prices and margins remain at current levels.

公司和融資費用預計約為 6 億美元，如果價格和利潤率保持在當前水平，我們預計將進一步減少債務。

With that, I will now turn the call over to Jack.

有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給傑克。

Thank you, Stephen, and good morning. We're very pleased with the company's performance for the first six months of this year from a number of perspectives, including safety, reliability, earnings, cash flow and debt reduction. We've also made progress in our efforts to reduce emissions, advance lower-carbon solutions and further advance the depth and quality of our portfolio.

謝謝你，斯蒂芬，早上好。從安全性、可靠性、收益、現金流和減債等多個角度來看，我們對公司今年前六個月的表現感到非常滿意。我們在減少排放、推進低碳解決方案以及進一步提升我們投資組合的深度和質量方面也取得了進展。

I'll spend a few minutes providing some highlights and perspectives on this progress, and let's start with a look at the business environment. Second quarter saw a rapidly recovering environment with significant improvement in all our product markets. Oil and gas prices increased materially since the fourth quarter of last year, and we're back within the 10-year range, driven largely by economic recovery as the pandemic-related restrictions were relaxed.

我將花幾分鐘就這一進展提供一些亮點和觀點，讓我們從商業環境開始。第二季度環境迅速恢復，我們所有的產品市場都有顯著改善。自去年第四季度以來，石油和天然氣價格大幅上漲，我們回到了 10 年的區間內，這主要是由於與大流行相關的限制放鬆，經濟復甦推動的。

Downstream margins moved close to the low end of the 10-year band. They continue to be impacted by an unbalanced global refining system, resulting primarily from an oversupply of distillates from low international jet demand. Nonetheless, U.S. demand growth drove substantial improvements from the historic lows of the fourth quarter. Importantly, significant earnings potential remains as the Downstream continues to recover from the lingering effects of the pandemic. And to build on that point and demonstrate just how quickly things can change, Chemical prices and margins were far above the 10-year band and drove record earnings. Chemical's record results were driven by strong base reliability, robust demand and tight supply for both polyethylene and polypropylene in the North American and European markets. Looking ahead, although we anticipate lengthening of supply and rising feed across the regions, our outlook is for Chemical margins to remain strong in the coming months.

下游利潤率接近 10 年區間的低端。它們繼續受到不平衡的全球煉油系統的影響，這主要是由於國際噴氣機需求低迷導致餾分油供應過剩。儘管如此，美國的需求增長推動了第四季度歷史低點的大幅改善。重要的是，隨著下游繼續從大流行的揮之不去的影響中恢復過來，巨大的盈利潛力仍然存在。為了在這一點上進一步證明事情的變化有多快，化學品的價格和利潤率遠高於 10 年的區間，並推動了創紀錄的收益。北美和歐洲市場對聚乙烯和聚丙烯的強勁基礎可靠性、強勁需求以及供應緊張推動了 Chemical 創紀錄的業績。展望未來，儘管我們預計各地區的供應將延長且飼料價格上漲，但我們預計未來幾個月化工利潤率將保持強勁。

Given the dynamic market and record results, I'd like to spend a few minutes talking more deeply about the chemical markets in our business, starting with a closer look at the current market environment. The last 18 months have been a testament to the underlying resiliency in demand for Chemical products, and that is especially true in a surging global economic recovery as these products are widely needed for food packaging, hygiene and the recovering automobile sector, among others. This year, polyethylene and polypropylene margins across North America and Europe increased by more than 140% versus the fourth quarter of last year. The recovery in Asia has been more challenging due to pockets of COVID resurgence, higher supply and increased crude and naphtha prices.

鑑於動態的市場和創紀錄的結果，我想花幾分鐘時間更深入地討論我們業務中的化學品市場，首先仔細看看當前的市場環境。過去 18 個月證明了對化學產品的潛在需求彈性，在全球經濟迅速復甦的情況下尤其如此，因為食品包裝、衛生和復甦的汽車行業等廣泛需要這些產品。今年，北美和歐洲的聚乙烯和聚丙烯利潤率與去年第四季度相比增長了 140% 以上。由於新冠疫情的複蘇、供應增加以及原油和石腦油價格上漲，亞洲的複蘇更具挑戰性。

The strong margins in the Atlantic Basin are the result of several factors. First, hurricane impacts in late 2020, followed by Winter Storm Uri earlier this year, which reduced inventory levels; second, unplanned industry shutdowns and turnarounds; third, global shipping constraints of finished products caused by port congestion, container availability and increased shipping costs from Asia to the U.S.; and then finally, demand growth in the U.S. commensurate with growth in GDP.

大西洋盆地的強勁邊緣是幾個因素的結果。首先是 2020 年末的颶風影響，隨後是今年早些時候的冬季風暴烏里，這降低了庫存水平；第二，計劃外的行業停工和轉機；第三，由於港口擁堵、集裝箱可用性和從亞洲到美國的運輸成本增加，導致成品的全球運輸限制；最後，美國的需求增長與 GDP 增長相稱。

Our Chemical business has benefited from this tightness with 70% of our polyethylene capacity located in these regions. A material portion of this is typically exported to Asia, but was redirected to Europe and North America enabling us to capture more than our share of demand growth.

我們的化工業務受益於這種緊張，我們 70% 的聚乙烯產能位於這些地區。其中很大一部分通常出口到亞洲，但被重定向到歐洲和北美，使我們能夠獲得超過我們的需求增長份額。

The scale, global footprint and multitude of product lines in our Chemical business provides competitive advantage and strong earnings potential is amplified in tight markets like today, and is also durable when looking at longer time frames.

我們化工業務的規模、全球足跡和眾多產品線提供了競爭優勢和強大的盈利潛力，在像今天這樣緊張的市場中得到了放大，並且在更長的時間範圍內也很耐用。

ExxonMobil Chemical's earnings over the past decade were 80% higher than the industry average. In the first quarter, our earnings were double the industry average, and our second quarter result is materially higher than the first. The core strategy of our Chemicals business is growing technology-driven, higher-value performance products. These have proven, over the test of time, to add significant value for our customers versus commodity chemical products.

埃克森美孚化工過去十年的收益比行業平均水平高出 80%。第一季度，我們的收益是行業平均水平的兩倍，我們第二季度的業績大大高於第一季度。我們化工業務的核心戰略是發展以技術為導向、價值更高的產品。經過時間的考驗，與商品化學產品相比，這些已證明可以為我們的客戶增加顯著的價值。

Our diverse product offerings and global reach are significant advantages. ExxonMobil Chemical is #1 or #2 in more than 80% of the markets where we compete. This provides resiliency across a wide range of market scenarios and upside in a market like today.

我們多樣化的產品供應和全球影響力是顯著的優勢。埃克森美孚化工在我們競爭的 80% 以上的市場中排名第一或第二。這為各種市場情景提供了彈性，並在今天這樣的市場中提供了上行空間。

In addition to the product diversity, I want to highlight the benefits we've seen this year from three important drivers:

除了產品多樣性之外，我想強調一下我們今年從三個重要驅動因素中看到的好處：

First, our ability to optimize feed and unit operations at our integrated facilities and leverage regional feedstock supply chains has generated about $1.4 billion of earnings for the first six months of this year.

首先，我們在綜合設施中優化飼料和單元運營以及利用區域原料供應鏈的能力在今年前六個月產生了約 14 億美元的收入。

Second, as we discussed during Investor Day, we've sharpened our focus on making our Chemicals business a leader in cost efficiency. As a result, costs were down significantly in 2020. And even with the higher sales volumes this year, ongoing structural efficiencies such as digital enhancements, manufacturing efficiencies and previously announced staffing reductions are expected to support $1 billion in annual reductions versus 2019.

其次，正如我們在投資者日期間所討論的那樣，我們更加專注於使我們的化學品業務成為成本效率方面的領導者。因此，成本在 2020 年顯著下降。即使今年銷量增加，數字增強、製造效率和先前宣布的裁員等持續的結構效率預計將支持與 2019 年相比每年減少 10 億美元。

And third, the recent advantaged project investments, including the world-scale U.S. Gulf Coast steam cracker and polyethylene reactors delivered $600 million in earnings in the first half of this year.

第三，近期優勢項目投資，包括世界規模的美國墨西哥灣沿岸蒸汽裂解裝置和聚乙烯反應堆，在今年上半年實現了 6 億美元的收益。

And there are more advantaged projects in flight today that will grow our supply of performance products and have an even larger impact on earnings. These projects will grow our supply of performance products by 70% by 2027, and grow the earnings contribution by 100% due to the higher value slate of new products. These products bring significant benefits to our customers. They support lower emissions, improve the performance of technologies that enable the energy transition and improve efficiencies. And those advantages ultimately are reflected in higher margins.

今天還有更多優勢項目正在實施，它們將增加我們的性能產品供應，並對收益產生更大的影響。到 2027 年，這些項目將使我們的高性能產品供應量增加 70%，由於新產品的價值更高，收益貢獻將增加 100%。這些產品為我們的客戶帶來了顯著的好處。它們支持降低排放，提高實現能源轉型的技術性能並提高效率。這些優勢最終體現在更高的利潤率上。

For example, polyethylene packaging has lower lifecycle emissions compared to alternatives. Performance polyethylene like our Exceed XP is stronger, enabling thinner films for the same applications. We're developing the capability to produce certified circular polymers from plastic waste using our proprietary advanced recycling technology. And polypropylene, used to reduce the weight of vehicles, improves fuel economy and battery life.

例如，與替代品相比，聚乙烯包裝的生命週期排放量較低。像我們的 Exceed XP 這樣的高性能聚乙烯更堅固，可以為相同的應用提供更薄的薄膜。我們正在開發利用我們專有的先進回收技術從塑料廢料中生產經過認證的圓形聚合物的能力。而聚丙烯，用於減輕車輛的重量，提高燃油經濟性和電池壽命。

The projects gain advantage not just from the higher-margin products they produce, but also from advantaged feed, scale, proprietary catalyst technology and the integration with our existing Chemical and Downstream facilities and logistics.

這些項目不僅從他們生產的利潤率更高的產品中獲得優勢，而且還從有利的原料、規模、專有催化劑技術以及與我們現有的化工和下游設施和物流的整合中獲得優勢。

Our focus going forward remains on advancing a number of major Chemical and also Downstream projects that will further strengthen our integrated manufacturing platforms and upgrade our product mix to meet a range of future demand scenarios.

我們未來的重點仍然是推進一些主要的化工和下游項目，這將進一步加強我們的集成製造平台併升級我們的產品組合，以滿足一系列未來的需求情景。

As you may recall, many of these projects were paced to preserve cash during the market downturn last year. Our global projects organization has done an excellent job managing this activity to preserve long-term value. This group of projects are expected to still be completed within the FID estimate.

您可能還記得，在去年市場低迷期間，其中許多項目都是為了保留現金。我們的全球項目組織在管理這項活動以保持長期價值方面做得非常出色。這組項目預計仍將在 FID 估計範圍內完成。

As an aside, this is the same organization that will be delivering future carbon capture projects advancing through our Low Carbon Solutions business. This capability continues to be an enduring competitive advantage and will only increase in importance going forward.

順便說一句，這也是將通過我們的低碳解決方案業務推進未來碳捕集項目的同一組織。這種能力仍然是一種持久的競爭優勢，並且在未來只會越來越重要。

In the Chemical business, our large Corpus Christi Chemical complex is ahead of schedule and under budget. We just announced a mechanical completion of the three derivative units, including a monoethylene glycol unit and two polyethylene reactors. Full site start-up is anticipated by year-end. Progress is ongoing at the polypropylene growth project in Baton Rouge, with start-up anticipated next year. Our Baytown Chemical Plant expansion will include a new Vistamaxx unit and a full range linear alpha olefins unit; it is on track for a 2023 startup. Our China 1 Venture captures the advantage of being located in the world's largest growth market. We signed several important agreements to advance the project, including a contract with Sinopec for basic engineering design, procurement and construction.

在化工業務方面，我們的大型科珀斯克里斯蒂化工綜合體提前完成且低於預算。我們剛剛宣布了三個衍生裝置的機械完工，包括一個單乙二醇裝置和兩個聚乙烯反應器。預計到年底全面啟動。巴吞魯日的聚丙烯增長項目正在取得進展，預計明年啟動。我們的 Baytown 化工廠擴建將包括一個新的威達美裝置和一個全系列線性 α 烯烴裝置；它有望在 2023 年啟動。我們的China 1 Venture 抓住了位於全球最大增長市場的優勢。我們簽署了多項重要協議以推進該項目，包括與中國石化簽訂的基礎工程設計、採購和施工合同。

In the Downstream, we're moving crude through the Wink-to-Webster Pipeline from the Permian Basin and are preparing to ship third-party production in the fourth quarter of this year. At Beaumont, process unit modules are on site, and we're ramping up construction activity for start-up in 2023. And our Singapore and Fawley projects are also progressing; however, they are a bit further out in terms of a full project restart.

在下游，我們正在從二疊紀盆地通過 Wink-to-Webster 管道輸送原油，並準備在今年第四季度運送第三方生產的產品。在 Beaumont，工藝單元模塊在現場，我們正在加緊建設活動，以便在 2023 年啟動。我們的新加坡和 Fawley 項目也在進行中；然而，就項目的全面重啟而言，它們離得更遠了。

Even in the current challenging refining environment, these Downstream projects are still attractive and materially improve the competitiveness of our integrated sites. If these four projects were online at today's margins, they would be contributing more than $1 billion in annual earnings. For example, our Singapore resid project will produce 20,000 barrels a day of high-quality lube basestocks that would have added to our strong lubricants result this quarter. Collectively, this world-class Chemical and Downstream project portfolio delivers 30% returns at 10-year average margins. That's more than $4 billion of annual earnings at 10-year average margins and $2 billion at 10-year low margins.

即使在當前充滿挑戰的煉油環境中，這些下游項目仍然具有吸引力，並大大提高了我們綜合場地的競爭力。如果這四個項目以今天的利潤率在線，它們將貢獻超過 10 億美元的年收入。例如，我們的新加坡渣油項目將每天生產 20,000 桶優質潤滑油基礎油，這將增加我們本季度強勁的潤滑油業績。總的來說，這個世界級的化工和下游項目組合以 10 年的平均利潤率提供 30% 的回報。按 10 年平均利潤率計算，年收益超過 40 億美元，按 10 年低利潤率計算，年收益超過 20 億美元。

We're also benefiting from ongoing attractive Upstream investments as well, especially in the Permian as development performance continues to improve, resulting in rapidly growing value. We produced 400,000 oil equivalent barrels a day this quarter, which was up approximately 50,000 oil-equivalent barrels a day versus the second quarter of last year, excluding the impact of the economic curtailments. We expect to grow production a further 40,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day in the third quarter. And importantly, value is growing even faster as operating and development performance continues to improve at a rate exceeding our plans.

我們也受益於持續的有吸引力的上游投資，尤其是在二疊紀，因為開發業績持續改善，導致價值快速增長。本季度我們每天生產 400,000 石油當量桶，與去年第二季度相比增加了約 50,000 石油當量桶，不包括經濟縮減的影響。我們預計第三季度的產量將進一步增加每天 40,000 桶石油當量。重要的是，隨著運營和開發績效繼續以超出我們計劃的速度提高，價值增長得更快。

Relative to 2019, we've more than doubled the lateral feet we're drilling per day and recently set an industry record by drilling a Delaware Basin 12,500-foot lateral in just 12 days. At the end of the second quarter, our drilling rates are approximately three times more efficient than in 2019. So another way to think about this is that the eight rigs we're running today are achieving the same lateral length as it took close to 25 rigs to drill just two years ago. Completions are improving, too - our frac rates are around 50% faster. This has resulted in a reduction in drilling and completion costs of more than 40%. And on top of that, we've also improved lease operating expense by about 35%.

相對於 2019 年，我們每天鑽探的側向腳增加了一倍多，最近在 12 天內通過鑽探特拉華盆地 12,500 英尺的側向創造了行業記錄。在第二季度末，我們的鑽探效率大約是 2019 年的三倍。因此，另一種思考方式是，我們今天運行的八台鑽井平台的橫向長度與接近 25兩年前鑽機。完工量也在提高——我們的壓裂率提高了 50% 左右。這導致鑽井和完井成本降低了 40% 以上。最重要的是，我們還將租賃運營費用提高了約 35%。

Our environmental performance also continues to improve. We achieved record low flaring intensity levels during the quarter, which was top quartile in the industry.

我們的環境績效也在不斷提高。我們在本季度實現了創紀錄的低燃燒強度水平，在行業中位居前四分之一。

As we've discussed previously, the advantaged short-cycle development profile of the Permian gives us flexibility within the portfolio. The parameters setting our pace of development have not changed. First, delivering positive free cash flow across a broad range of price scenarios; second, demonstrating we are achieving industry-leading capital efficiency; and third, ensuring double-digit returns at $35 a barrel or less. This low-price resiliency also applies to our deepwater developments in Guyana and Brazil.

正如我們之前所討論的，二疊紀有利的短週期開發概況使我們在投資組合中具有靈活性。設定我們發展步伐的參數沒有改變。首先，在廣泛的價格情景中提供正的自由現金流；第二，證明我們正在實現行業領先的資本效率；第三，確保每桶 35 美元或更低的兩位數回報。這種低價彈性也適用於我們在圭亞那和巴西的深水開發。

In Guyana's Stabroek block, we've added three new discoveries since the first quarter, including the Whiptail discovery announced this week. The Uaru-2 well encountered 120 feet of high-quality oil-bearing reservoirs. The Longtail-3 well encountered 230 feet of net pay and both of these results included newly identified intervals below the zones originally discovered. Resource quantification is ongoing.

在圭亞那的 Stabroek 區塊，自第一季度以來，我們增加了三個新發現，包括本周宣布的 Whiptail 發現。 Uaru-2 井遇到了 120 英尺的優質含油儲層。 Longtail-3 井遇到了 230 英尺的淨產層，這兩個結果都包括在最初發現的區域下方新確定的層段。資源量化正在進行中。

The Whiptail-1 well encountered 246 feet of net pay and drilling is ongoing at the Whiptail-2 well, which has encountered 167 feet of net pay, both in high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. This additional resource will add to the 9 billion oil-equivalent barrels we discussed at Investor Day, further increasing our confidence in the resource size and quality in the area east of Liza and supporting our view of an ultimate block-wide footprint of 7 to 10 developments.

Whiptail-1 井的淨產油量為 246 英尺，Whiptail-2 井的鑽探工作正在進行中，該井的淨產油量為 167 英尺，均位於優質含油砂岩油藏中。這一額外資源將增加我們在投資者日討論的 90 億桶石油當量，進一步增強我們對 Liza 以東地區資源規模和質量的信心，並支持我們對 7 到 10 個最終區塊範圍的看法事態發展。

The projects in progress remain on schedule with the expected arrival of the Liza Phase 2 Unity FPSO in Guyanese waters early in the fourth quarter. Payara, the third major development on the block is on track for a 2024 start-up with topsides construction ongoing. And pending government approval, we're targeting a final investment decision on Yellowtail, our fourth major development later this year, with startup planned for 2025.

隨著 Liza Phase 2 Unity FPSO 預計於第四季度初抵達圭亞那水域，正在進行的項目仍在按計劃進行。 Payara 是該區塊的第三個主要開發項目，有望在 2024 年啟動，上部建設正在進行中。在政府批准之前，我們的目標是對 Yellowtail 做出最終投資決定，這是我們今年晚些時候的第四個主要開發項目，計劃於 2025 年啟動。

Offshore Brazil, we confirmed the final investment decision on the Bacalhau development during the second quarter, and expect this 220,000 barrel a day project to start up in 2024. It will deliver more than a 15% rate of return at $50 a barrel.

在巴西海上，我們在第二季度確認了 Bacalhau 開發項目的最終投資決定，預計這個日產 220,000 桶的項目將於 2024 年啟動。它將以每桶 50 美元的價格提供超過 15% 的回報率。

I'll now turn the call back over to Darren to discuss our Low Carbon Solutions business and long-term plans.

我現在將電話轉回 Darren，討論我們的低碳解決方案業務和長期計劃。

Thanks, Jack. Let me shift focus now to the wide range of activities we are pursuing to ensure ExxonMobil plays a key role in the energy transition while continuing to grow shareholder value.

謝謝，傑克。現在讓我將重點轉移到我們正在開展的廣泛活動上，以確保埃克森美孚在能源轉型中發揮關鍵作用，同時繼續增加股東價值。

You'll recall that earlier this year, we established our Low Carbon Solutions business to develop potential carbon capture and storage opportunities using both established and emerging technologies and progress commercialization of other lower-emissions technologies. We believe that the depth and breadth of our operating experience, history of process innovation, project execution, subsurface expertise and ability to scale technology gives us a competitive advantage in what is expected to be a fast-growing market for low carbon solutions.

您會記得，今年早些時候，我們建立了低碳解決方案業務，以利用成熟和新興技術開發潛在的碳捕獲和儲存機會，並推進其他低排放技術的商業化。我們相信，我們在運營經驗、工藝創新歷史、項目執行、地下專業知識和技術規模化能力方面的深度和廣度使我們在預計將成為快速增長的低碳解決方案市場中具有競爭優勢。

We also believe that the time is right, given the developing market for emission reduction credits and growing recognition of the importance of carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and biofuels by both governments and investors - all critical for broad-scale commercialization. The new organization is making steady progress in developing a wide range of attractive opportunities weighted initially towards carbon capture and storage. We provided a few examples here to give you a sense of the opportunities.

我們還認為，考慮到減排信用市場的發展以及政府和投資者越來越認識到碳捕獲和儲存、氫和生物燃料的重要性——所有這些對於大規模商業化都至關重要，現在時機成熟了。新組織在開發一系列吸引人的機會方面取得了穩步進展，這些機會最初側重於碳捕獲和儲存。我們在這裡提供了一些示例，讓您了解這些機會。

Next year, we anticipate final investment decisions for a large CCS expansion at our LaBarge facility in Wyoming and a new carbon capture technology pilot associated with the Porthos project in Rotterdam. This quarter, we signed an MOU to explore the development of CO2 infrastructure to help decarbonize the industrial basin in the Normandy region of France, and an MOU to participate in the recently announced Acorn CCS project in Scotland.

明年，我們預計將在懷俄明州的 LaBarge 工廠進行大規模 CCS 擴建以及與鹿特丹 Porthos 項目相關的新碳捕集技術試點的最終投資決策。本季度，我們簽署了一份諒解備忘錄，以探索二氧化碳基礎設施的發展，以幫助法國諾曼底地區的工業盆地脫碳，並簽署一份諒解備忘錄，參與最近宣布的蘇格蘭 Acorn CCS 項目。

We are continuing to pursue several Gulf Coast opportunities, including our Houston Hub concept, which are all gaining industry and third-party support.

我們正在繼續尋求幾個墨西哥灣沿岸的機會，包括我們的休斯頓樞紐概念，這些都獲得了行業和第三方的支持。

In addition to carbon capture and storage, we're advancing a number of options to produce low emissions biofuels. These include new projects, repurposing existing refinery units, co-processing biofeeds and purchase agreements. These plans would enable the production of more than 40,000 barrels per day of low-emission fuels by 2025.

除了碳捕獲和儲存之外，我們還在推進多種生產低排放生物燃料的選擇。其中包括新項目、重新利用現有煉油廠、協同處理生物飼料和採購協議。這些計劃將使到 2025 年每天生產超過 40,000 桶低排放燃料。

We also recently completed a successful trial to co-process biofeed across our existing refining circuit. Coprocessing biofeed is a key technology that can be rapidly scaled to help society quickly lower emissions, provided the right policies are in place. In addition, during the quarter, we expanded a previous agreement with alternative fuels developer Global Clean Energy to annually purchase up to 5 million barrels of renewable diesel. This is basically a drop-in lower-carbon fuel that meets all finished product specs for today's engines. Commercial production is expected to begin next year.

我們最近還成功地完成了一項在我們現有的精煉迴路中協同處理生物飼料的試驗。協同處理生物飼料是一項關鍵技術，如果制定了正確的政策，可以迅速擴大規模以幫助社會快速降低排放。此外，在本季度，我們擴大了與替代燃料開發商 Global Clean Energy 的先前協議，每年採購多達 500 萬桶可再生柴油。這基本上是一種低碳燃料，符合當今發動機的所有成品規格。商業生產預計將於明年開始。

In markets where low carbon fuels policies incentivize the development of lower-emission fuels like California and Canada, scale opportunities exist. We see the potential to leverage our existing facility footprint, proprietary catalyst technology and decades of experience in processing challenging feed streams to develop attractive low-emission fuels projects with competitive returns.

在加利福尼亞和加拿大等低碳燃料政策鼓勵開發低排放燃料的市場中，存在規模化機會。我們看到了利用我們現有的設施足跡、專有的催化劑技術和在處理具有挑戰性的原料流方面數十年的經驗來開發具有競爭力的回報的有吸引力的低排放燃料項目的潛力。

An effectively designed low-carbon fuels standard in the U.S. could accelerate significant CO2 reductions in the hard-to-abate transportation segment at a cost much lower than some existing policy.

美國有效設計的低碳燃料標準可以以遠低於某些現有政策的成本在難以減排的運輸領域加速顯著減少二氧化碳排放。

While we advocate for needed policies such as a carbon tax or low-carbon fuel standard and develop future projects, we continue to lead the industry in developing and deploying new technologies to address another important issue: reducing methane emissions. To that end, we have conducted more than 23,000 leak surveys on more than 5 million components at over 9,500 locations. We are eliminating high-bleed pneumatic devices across our U.S. unconventional production and participating as a founding member in industry initiatives to improve detection and reduction of methane leaks.

在我們倡導碳稅或低碳燃料標準等必要政策並開發未來項目的同時，我們繼續引領行業開發和部署新技術以解決另一個重要問題：減少甲烷排放。為此，我們在 9,500 多個地點對超過 500 萬個組件進行了 23,000 多次洩漏調查。我們正在美國非常規生產中淘汰高排放氣動設備，並作為創始成員參與行業倡議，以改進檢測和減少甲烷洩漏。

ExxonMobil is also the first company to file an application with the EPA to use airplanes equipped with methane detection technology to conduct large fly-over inspections, and we're evaluating satellite technology in support of our 2025 reduction plans for both methane intensity and absolute methane emissions. These ongoing efforts to commercialize low-carbon solutions and reduce emissions are central to our long-term plan to grow shareholder value. As markets and policies continue to evolve, we will be there playing our part, contributing where we bring the most value.

埃克森美孚也是第一家向 EPA 申請使用配備甲烷檢測技術的飛機進行大型飛越檢查的公司，我們正在評估衛星技術以支持我們的 2025 年甲烷強度和絕對甲烷減排計劃排放。這些將低碳解決方案商業化和減少排放的持續努力是我們增加股東價值的長期計劃的核心。隨著市場和政策的不斷發展，我們將發揮自己的作用，為我們帶來最大價值的地方做出貢獻。

In the nearer term, as we begin the development of next year's plan, our organization is focused on continuing to deliver industry-leading operating performance, building on last year's record results in safety and reliability and extending our trend of annual reductions in emissions intensity by accelerating the pace of reductions and establishing more aggressive objectives. This will enable us to reduce our own emissions at a pace faster than what the countries have committed to under the Paris agreement. It will also help accelerate our objective of industry leadership in greenhouse gas performance by the end of the decade.

在近期內，隨著我們開始製定明年的計劃，我們的組織將專注於繼續提供行業領先的運營績效，在去年安全性和可靠性方面的創紀錄成果的基礎上，將我們的年度排放強度降低趨勢擴大加快減排步伐，制定更積極的目標。這將使我們能夠以比各國在《巴黎協定》下承諾的速度更快地減少自己的排放量。它還將有助於加快我們在本世紀末實現在溫室氣體性能方面處於行業領先地位的目標。

Of course, we remain focused on sustained financial discipline. We are developing plans consistent with our existing commitments to deliver $6 billion of annual structural savings by the end of 2023; manage future capital investments, including new low-carbon projects within previously announced CapEx ranges; and restoring the strength of our balance sheet, returning debt to levels consistent with a strong AA rating.

當然，我們仍然專注於持續的財務紀律。我們正在製定符合我們現有承諾的計劃，即到 2023 年底每年實現 60 億美元的結構性節約；管理未來的資本投資，包括先前宣布的資本支出範圍內的新低碳項目；並恢復我們資產負債表的實力，將債務恢復到與強 AA 評級一致的水平。

As our results demonstrate, we've made good progress in improving our competitiveness, but we're not satisfied. Our plans will focus on driving a further step change. We see a significant opportunity to capture scale and integration benefits from our recent reorganizations, improving efficiency, effectiveness and growing additional cash flow.

正如我們的結果所表明的那樣，我們在提高競爭力方面取得了不錯的進展，但我們並不滿意。我們的計劃將側重於推動進一步的變革。我們看到了一個重要的機會，可以從我們最近的重組中獲得規模和整合效益，提高效率、有效性和增加額外的現金流。

To strengthen the earnings and cash flow potential of our assets, our plans will continue to advance high-return, advantaged projects and high-grade our existing assets through accretive divestments. Finally, as I have illustrated, we're stepping up and accelerating efforts to ensure the company plays a meaningful role in the energy transition. Our plans will reflect the continuing development and deployment of needed technologies, and where the appropriate incentives are in place, accretive investments.

為了增強我們資產的收益和現金流潛力，我們的計劃將繼續通過增值剝離推進高回報、優勢項目和高品位的現有資產。最後，正如我已經說明的那樣，我們正在加緊努力，以確保公司在能源轉型中發揮有意義的作用。我們的計劃將反映所需技術的持續開發和部署，以及在適當的激勵措施到位的情況下，增加投資。

As we finalize our plans later this year, we'll provide additional updates with a more detailed review at our next Investor Day.

隨著我們在今年晚些時候敲定我們的計劃，我們將在下一個投資者日提供更多更新和更詳細的審查。

Reflecting back on the past half year, we're pleased with the results the organization's hard work has delivered in a recovering market. We've made a lot of progress as demonstrated by our year-to-date performance. And we're excited about the opportunities ahead. We appreciate your participation in today's call and look forward to answering your questions.

回顧過去半年，我們對組織的辛勤工作在復甦的市場中取得的成果感到滿意。正如我們年初至今的表現所證明的那樣，我們已經取得了很大的進步。我們對未來的機會感到興奮。感謝您參加今天的電話會議，並期待回答您的問題。

Thank you, Darren. Operator, please open up the phone lines.

謝謝你，達倫。接線員，請打開電話線。

(Operator Instructions) And we'll go first to Phil Gresh with JPMorgan.

（操作員說明）我們將首先與摩根大通一起去菲爾格雷什。

So just going back to your earlier remarks about all the discussions that you've had with the Board recently, I'm curious what you take away from that as to whether you have any new or incremental thoughts about the best way to drive increased value to shareholders from here? You kind of went through some items there at the very end. But on the margin, do you feel like you've learned anything different from these discussions? And if you could layer in some thoughts around CapEx and balance sheet in that. That would be helpful.

回到你之前關於你最近與董事會進行的所有討論的評論，我很好奇你從中得到了什麼，關於你是否對推動價值增長的最佳方式有任何新的或增量的想法從這裡給股東？你在最後經歷了一些項目。但在邊緣，你覺得你從這些討論中學到了什麼不同的東西嗎？如果你可以圍繞資本支出和資產負債表進行一些思考。那會很有幫助。

Sure. Yes. Thanks, Phil. Good to hear from you this morning. Yes, I think the one point I would make in terms of a context to the response is it's fairly early in the process, as I said in my opening comments. We've only had the one meeting with the Board, but I would tell you that meeting was very encouraging.

當然。是的。謝謝，菲爾。很高興今天早上收到你的來信。是的，正如我在開場評論中所說，我認為就回复的背景而言，我想說的一點是，它還處於流程的早期階段。我們只與董事會舉行了一次會議，但我會告訴你，這次會議非常令人鼓舞。

The other point I would make is actually the new Board has formed at a very good time with respect to our typical cycle with -- in managing the business. We have just kicked off our corporate plan process that runs through the end of November. And so we -- with the new Board, went through the basis of the plan and the objectives that we are setting ourselves. So we had an opportunity for a very rich conversation about that and what we need the organization to deliver this year and continuing this year and into next year and the years ahead.

我要說的另一點實際上是新董事會的成立時間非常好，就我們的典型週期而言 - 在管理業務方面。我們剛剛啟動了持續到 11 月底的公司計劃流程。因此，我們與新董事會一起完成了計劃的基礎和我們為自己設定的目標。因此，我們有機會就這一點進行了非常豐富的對話，以及我們需要該組織在今年以及今年和明年以及未來幾年繼續提供什麼。

We also have a biannual strategy process that we have in place, which this year, we are doing in September and the new Board will basically have an opportunity to really dig into and go through the strategies that we've developed with all of our business, including our new business, Low Carbon Solutions and the broader corporate profile. So I expect, as we go through this year, to get a lot of good conversations about where the company is going, the opportunities that are ahead of us and where we want to put our emphasis.

我們還制定了一年兩次的戰略流程，今年，我們將在 9 月進行，新董事會基本上將有機會真正深入研究並完成我們為所有業務制定的戰略，包括我們的新業務、低碳解決方案和更廣泛的企業形象。因此，我希望，在我們度過這一年的過程中，能夠就公司的發展方向、擺在我們面前的機會以及我們想要重點關注的地方進行很多很好的對話。

I think I would say the fundamental approach that we've taken is very, I'd say, there is very good alignment amongst the Board. I think they all recognize that the opportunity for us to take leadership role in this space is leveraging the capabilities and advantages we currently have. And so finding the opportunities that fit well with where we can add the most value is, I think, a very aligned objective amongst the Board. And of course, you've heard me talk about that, and I mentioned in my opening comments, the broader conversation that society is now having, governments are now having around the solution sets needed to address the transition, I think, opens the door to a much richer conversation about where ExxonMobil can play and contribute carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, biofuels, other areas potentially that leverage our strength. So I think we're -- things are lining up very well within the company. And then I would say more externally in the broader environment.

我想我會說我們採取的基本方法非常，我想說，董事會之間有很好的一致性。我認為他們都認識到，我們在這個領域發揮領導作用的機會是利用我們目前擁有的能力和優勢。因此，我認為，找到適合我們可以增加最大價值的機會是董事會之間非常一致的目標。當然，你已經聽到我談論過這個，我在開場白中提到，社會現在正在進行的更廣泛的對話，政府現在正在圍繞解決過渡所需的解決方案集，我認為，打開了大門就埃克森美孚可以在哪些領域發揮作用和貢獻碳捕獲和儲存、氫氣、生物燃料以及其他可能利用我們優勢的領域進行更豐富的對話。所以我認為我們 - 公司內部的情況非常好。然後我會在更廣泛的環境中從外部說更多。

With respect to CapEx and the balance sheet, as you mentioned, I think, again, good alignment around the importance of rebuilding the strength of the balance sheet. Everyone recognizes this is a commodity market with some significant cycles and volatility and making sure that we've got a balance sheet that we can lean on as we move through that volatile environment and manage the downs as well as the ups is a really important foundational piece of our strategy, and I think very good alignment on that, and that was reaffirmed in the conversations we had this week with our finance committee and the broader Board.

關於資本支出和資產負債表，正如你所提到的，我認為，再次圍繞重建資產負債表實力的重要性進行了良好的調整。每個人都認識到這是一個具有重大周期和波動性的大宗商品市場，確保我們有一個可以依靠的資產負債表，在我們度過那個動蕩的環境並管理跌宕起伏時，這是一個非常重要的基礎我們的戰略的一部分，我認為在這方面非常一致，這在我們本週與我們的財務委員會和更廣泛的董事會進行的對話中得到了重申。

And I think, too, given the improvements we've made around capital efficiencies, the work our global project organization has done to really make sure that we can deliver these projects with -- at a very advantaged cost. And we're very confident that we can do the things that we want to do, add some additional activities in the Low Carbon Solutions and do all of that within the range of CapEx that we've previously communicated. And I think, again, good alignment on that, and we'll confirm that as we move to the plan cycle and have those reviews with the Board later this year.

我也認為，鑑於我們在資本效率方面所做的改進，我們的全球項目組織所做的工作是為了真正確保我們能夠以非常有利的成本交付這些項目。我們非常有信心可以做我們想做的事情，在低碳解決方案中添加一些額外的活動，並在我們之前溝通的資本支出範圍內完成所有這些。我再次認為，在這方面有很好的一致性，我們將在進入計劃週期並在今年晚些時候與董事會進行這些審查時確認這一點。

Got it. Okay. And as a follow-up, just on the spending side and with respect to your comments, it sounds like if you were to stick with the $20 billion to $25 billion range, which would be up a decent amount from the low end of the $16 billion to $19 billion range this year, should we be seeing more of an acceleration around energy transition spending kind of embedded in that? Is that how you envision things moving forward versus how you've thought about in the past?

知道了。好的。作為後續行動，就支出方面和您的評論而言，聽起來如果您要堅持 200 億至 250 億美元的範圍，這將比 16 美元的低端高出可觀的數量今年從 10 億美元到 190 億美元不等，我們是否應該看到更多圍繞能源轉型支出的加速？與過去的想法相比，這是您設想事情發展的方式嗎？

Yes. I would say that the energy transition spending will be embedded in the range that we've laid out. I think, though, it's good to keep some perspective in this space. If you think about the comments around the broader opportunity set opening up in a broader recognition of the need for that opportunity set, so I'm referring to carbon capture, hydrogen and some of that. That's very rapidly evolving space. And so while we've got a really, I think, good portfolio of opportunities, some of them very attractive that the time to transition from the planning and the development of those projects to steel in the ground is going to take some time. We'll be talking about that and the investments that we're planning going forward. And then, of course, the steel in the ground will come with time across the horizon that we typically talk about. And all of that is expected to be within the 20 to 25 range.

是的。我會說能源轉型支出將包含在我們制定的範圍內。不過，我認為，在這個領域保持一些觀點是件好事。如果您考慮圍繞更廣泛機會集開放的評論，更廣泛地認識到需要該機會集，所以我指的是碳捕獲、氫和其中的一些。這是一個發展非常迅速的空間。因此，我認為，雖然我們有一個非常好的機會組合，其中一些非常有吸引力，從這些項目的規劃和開發過渡到地下鋼鐵的時間將需要一些時間。我們將討論這一點以及我們計劃進行的投資。然後，當然，隨著時間的推移，地下的鋼鐵會穿過我們通常談論的地平線。所有這些都預計在 20 到 25 範圍內。

We'll go next to Jon Rigby with UBS.

我們將與瑞銀一起去喬恩·里格比（Jon Rigby）旁邊。

Can I ask a question on the Downstream. I listened to what Jack said about the chemicals and the huge competitive advantage Exxon continues to demonstrate in Chemicals. But you could turn around back that comment and sort of see it in reverse in the Downstream where the series of loss-making quarters is pretty unusual and looks like underperformance versus your peers. Are there any takeaways from those quarters that you could share with us around sort of the structural makeup of that business? Or are you just relying on the cycle for those earnings and cash flows to recover?

我可以問一個關於下游的問題嗎？我聽了傑克關於化學品和埃克森美孚在化學品領域繼續展示的巨大競爭優勢的看法。但是你可以把這個評論轉過來，在下游看到它的倒轉，在下游，一系列虧損的季度是非常不尋常的，看起來與你的同行相比表現不佳。關於該業務的結構構成，您是否可以與我們分享這些方面的任何收穫？還是您只是依靠週期來恢復這些收入和現金流？

Yes. Thanks, Jon. I'm going to hand it to Jack here to get maybe more specifics, but maybe a couple broader comments at your point that it is unusual given the consecutive quarters of challenging results in the Downstream. But I would also say going through the pandemic and losing over half of the jet demand coming out of the refining circuit is very unusual as well. And I think a very discrete and unique event associated with the global pandemic. So I think that context is really important to keep in mind as you think about our Downstream business and the results.

是的。謝謝，喬恩。我將把它交給傑克，以獲得更多細節，但在你的觀點上可能會有一些更廣泛的評論，鑑於下游連續幾個季度的挑戰性結果，這是不尋常的。但我還要說，經歷大流行並失去來自煉油迴路的一半以上的噴氣式飛機需求也是非常不尋常的。我認為這是與全球大流行相關的一個非常離散和獨特的事件。因此，我認為當您考慮我們的下游業務和結果時，要牢記這一背景非常重要。

The other point that I would just make with respect to your comment or question is, I think when you talk about the Downstream and compare across competitors, you've got to recognize the difference in the footprints and the investments in capital assets that we have. I would tell you as you look across our competitive group, we are much more heavily weighted in refining than some of our competitors. And so obviously, in an environment where refining margins are structurally down, performance is going to look different. And I think it's really important certainly what we focus on is making sure we normalize and understand what aspects are driving the performance. And I would say our capital structure, the investments that we've made over the years are a really important part of that.

關於您的評論或問題，我想提出的另一點是，我認為當您談論下游並比較競爭對手時，您必須認識到我們擁有的足跡和資本資產投資的差異.我會告訴你，縱觀我們的競爭群體，我們在精煉方面的權重比我們的一些競爭對手要大得多。很明顯，在煉油利潤率結構性下降的環境中，業績看起來會有所不同。而且我認為非常重要的是，我們關注的重點是確保我們正常化並了解推動性能的方面。我想說的是我們的資本結構，我們多年來所做的投資是其中非常重要的一部分。

I would also tell you that what I refer to as the physics of this business is you can't stay at these low levels and continue with the level of supply that has historically existed in the Downstream. And you see that today with the shutdowns that are occurring in the industry. And so while that takes some time, this market will come back into balance. And if it's anything like we've seen with crude when that economic recovery kicks in, we're going to see supply and demand tighten, I suspect, and I think we'll see a different level of performance with respect to the Downstream and with respect to our peers. But obviously, that will be a function of that balance and when that economic recovery comes back around again.

我還要告訴你，我所說的這項業務的物理特性是，你不能停留在這些低水平並繼續保持下游歷史上存在的供應水平。你今天看到了這個行業正在發生的停工。因此，雖然這需要一些時間，但這個市場將恢復平衡。如果在經濟復甦開始時就像我們在原油中看到的那樣，我懷疑我們將看到供需收緊，而且我認為我們將看到下游和下游的不同表現水平相對於我們的同行。但顯然，這將取決於這種平衡以及經濟復甦何時恢復。

And I'll just make one final point in terms of -- we're not relying on just the cycle. We recognize the impact of the cycle, but I can assure you that, that Downstream organization is very focused on ensuring that we're pulling as many value levers as we can in the right way to build sustained and structural improvements that will benefit us, obviously, in this downcycle, but also in the upcycle.

我要最後一點——我們不僅僅依賴於週期。我們認識到週期的影響，但我可以向你保證，下游組織非常專注於確保我們以正確的方式盡可能多地利用價值槓桿，以建立有利於我們的持續和結構改進，顯然，在這個下行週期中，也在上行週期中。

With that, let me turn it over to Jack. I don't know if I left anything Jack.

有了這個，讓我把它交給傑克。我不知道我有沒有留下任何東西，傑克。

Well, I did want to pick up on the refining exposure versus some of the others. We do have at the largest refinery. We do have quite a bit of exposure to that market and we talked about in the fourth quarter, how historically low that was, and we are seeing some recovery. But due to the jet demand, that's going to take a little bit of time.

好吧，我確實想了解與其他一些人相比的精煉風險。我們確實有最大的煉油廠。我們確實對該市場有相當多的敞口，我們在第四季度談到了歷史低點，我們看到了一些復甦。但由於噴氣機的需求，這將需要一點時間。

I did mention in my prepared remarks that these new investments that we are making will help and the recent ones we have made have helped. The Rotterdam investment has made a couple hundred million dollars this year and that will continue to help. So we are investing to continue to grow advantage in our -- in what is a difficult right now, fuels value chain, but picking up on the Rotterdam comment, our lubricants business has done quite well over the past couple of years. As a matter of fact, having a record year last year and extremely strong results so far this year. So that is a kind of balance to the fuels -- a tough refining fuels market.

我在準備好的講話中確實提到，我們正在進行的這些新投資將有所幫助，而我們最近所做的投資也有所幫助。鹿特丹的投資今年已經賺了幾億美元，這將繼續提供幫助。因此，我們正在投資以繼續增強我們的優勢——在目前困難的情況下，燃料價值鏈，但根據鹿特丹的評論，我們的潤滑油業務在過去幾年中表現相當不錯。事實上，去年取得了創紀錄的成績，今年迄今為止取得了非常強勁的成績。所以這是對燃料的一種平衡——一個艱難的煉油燃料市場。

We -- I mentioned the integration of our refining with our chemicals. 75% of our refineries are integrated with Chemicals and others are in advantaged markets. So we're making sure -- we want to make sure that the refineries we have going forward are advantaged. And that's what these investments are about -- making sure the ones that we think are -- have natural advantages we build on those advantages.

我們 - 我提到了我們的精煉與我們的化學品的整合。我們 75% 的煉油廠與化工企業整合在一起，而其他煉油廠則位於優勢市場。因此，我們正在確保 - 我們希望確保我們未來的煉油廠具有優勢。這就是這些投資的目的——確保我們認為的那些——具有我們在這些優勢基礎上建立的自然優勢。

And then just in terms of Darren's comment about kind of the physics of refining, we've seen about almost 3 million barrels a day of rationalization over the past year, 18 months. So it's definitely quite a bit above where it has been historically, and we'll just have to see how that plays out. But we are seeing a slow -- slower than we hoped -- recovery in the refining environment.

然後就達倫關於煉油物理的評論而言，在過去的一年，18 個月裡，我們已經看到了每天將近 300 萬桶的合理化。所以它肯定比歷史上的水平要高很多，我們只需要看看它是如何發揮作用的。但我們看到煉油環境的複蘇緩慢 - 比我們希望的要慢。

And just a follow-up. Darren, you mentioned at the start, you sort of referenced some of the responsibilities that Kathryn will be taking on when she takes on the role of CFO. I think you indicated IR responsibilities, strategic planning, et cetera. But it is unusual, very unusual to appoint somebody from outside of the organization in such a senior role and also somebody without oil and gas experience. So I just wondered whether you could just expand a little bit around the sort of qualities and experience that she brings that will add value or will add to the process at the high level of Exxon.

只是一個後續行動。達倫，你在開頭提到，你有點提到凱瑟琳在擔任首席財務官時將承擔的一些職責。我認為您指出了 IR 責任、戰略規劃等。但是，任命組織外部的人擔任如此高級職位，同時任命沒有石油和天然氣經驗的人，這是不尋常的，非常不尋常的。所以我只是想知道你是否可以圍繞她帶來的那種品質和經驗進行一些擴展，這些品質和經驗會增加價值，或者會增加埃克森美孚高級別的流程。

Sure. And maybe just as, I think, very important context, understand what's enabled that change revolution. And I've talked before, I think, with all of you about the reorganizations and the consolidations and the changes that we've been making and how we run the business.

當然。我認為，也許就像非常重要的背景一樣，了解是什麼促成了這場變革革命。我想，我之前已經和你們所有人談過重組和整合，以及我們一直在做的改變以及我們如何經營業務。

If you look at the senior -- the corporate officers in the organization, we reduced that group by almost 40% over the years in terms of as we simplify the business, line up the value chains, reduce the overhead. We were able to make significant simplifications in that structure and then reduce numbers. And that also allows us to concentrate and consolidate some of the responsibility. So as we've made those changes with time, we've been able to shape the portfolio of the management committee members and focus them on core areas.

如果你看一下組織中的高級管理人員，我們多年來將這一群體減少了近 40%，因為我們簡化了業務，排列了價值鏈，減少了開銷。我們能夠對該結構進行重大簡化，然後減少數量。這也使我們能夠集中和鞏固一些責任。因此，隨著我們隨著時間的推移做出這些改變，我們已經能夠塑造管理委員會成員的投資組合併將他們集中在核心領域。

And so we're in a position today where, as we've consolidated those responsibilities and focused them that we're creating a management committee position that's much more aligned today with what would be typical CFO-type responsibilities versus the past where we had much broader number of businesses and therefore, a much broader reporting relationship up into Dallas. So that simplification has enabled our ability to focus and bring these portfolios in line with what would be some more industry standard opportunities, which then led us through Board discussions last year, to start thinking about how we can expand the capabilities, the skill sets, the experience on the management committee and bring in what we think is some relevant experience into a portfolio that's consistent with and shaped with outside industry experience.

因此，我們今天所處的位置是，隨著我們整合這些職責並集中精力，我們正在創建一個管理委員會職位，該職位與我們過去的典型 CFO 類型職責更加一致更多的企業，因此，更廣泛的報告關係到達拉斯。因此，這種簡化使我們能夠集中精力並使這些投資組合與一些更符合行業標準的機會保持一致，這使我們在去年進行了董事會討論，開始思考如何擴展能力、技能集、管理委員會的經驗，並將我們認為的一些相關經驗引入與外部行業經驗一致和塑造的投資組合中。

And obviously, understanding the industry is going to be an important role of that. I think we've got a pretty capable team, an organization that understands that industry very well that's going to support Kathy, with respect to that as she comes up the learning curve there. But I also think she'll bring in a lot of perspective from the outside, that's very relevant to the business along some of those core areas, including procurement and supply chains and some of the other areas of responsibility. So I think there's -- that change in our structure and approach to running the business has opened up some nice opportunities, and we think bringing in that diversity of thought, experience and perspective is actually going to benefit. And obviously, we'll supplement that with our industry knowledge. So I think the mix will be a very powerful combination.

顯然，了解這個行業將是其中的一個重要角色。我認為我們有一個非常有能力的團隊，一個非常了解這個行業的組織，這將支持凱西，因為她在那裡的學習曲線上升。但我也認為她會從外部引入很多觀點，這與一些核心領域的業務非常相關，包括採購和供應鏈以及其他一些責任領域。所以我認為——我們的結構和經營業務的方法的變化開闢了一些很好的機會，我們認為引入思想、經驗和觀點的多樣性實際上會受益。顯然，我們將用我們的行業知識來補充這一點。所以我認為混合將是一個非常強大的組合。

We'll go next to Doug Leggate with Bank of America.

我們將與美國銀行一起前往 Doug Leggate。

Darren, I'm going to try and ask this as eloquently as I can. If you can bear with me for a minute to address the 800 ton gorilla in the room, which obviously was the Board changes. The press would have us believe that you lost a climate fight, but all the discussions we've had with some of your large shareholders suggest it was an issue of capital discipline, spending, dividend protection. And my question really is that Exxon is already a leader in carbon capture. You're already leading through the methane partnership. You've been doing a lot of things for a long time. And you have got one of the best portfolios of growth opportunities in the industry that can drive sustainable dividend growth. A lot of your peers mismanaged the cycle. Now where some might say you spent a little bit too aggressively, the bottom line is you've still got those opportunities. So can you give us some assurances that just to tick a box, you are not going to sacrifice returns relative -- on a relative basis across the portfolio?

達倫，我會盡量雄辯地問這個問題。如果你能忍受我一分鐘來解決房間裡的 800 噸大猩猩，這顯然是董事會的變化。媒體會讓我們相信你們在氣候鬥爭中輸了，但我們與你們的一些大股東進行的所有討論都表明這是一個資本紀律、支出、股息保護問題。我的問題確實是埃克森美孚已經是碳捕獲領域的領導者。您已經在甲烷合作夥伴關係中處於領先地位。很長一段時間以來，您一直在做很多事情。您擁有業內最好的增長機會組合之一，可以推動可持續的股息增長。你的很多同行對這個週期管理不善。現在有些人可能會說你花的有點太激進了，最重要的是你仍然有這些機會。那麼，您能否向我們保證，僅在一個方框中打勾，您不會犧牲相對回報——在整個投資組合的相對基礎上？

I think that's an easy answer to give you, Doug. That has been a primary focus for us for a long, long time, and certainly when I've been in the job. And as you know from past conversations, the work that we've been doing to reshape the organization to get more effective at running the business. And then importantly, recapitalizing the business with advantaged assets and supply has been a really important focus. And I think the work that we've done in the past has put us in a very solid position to continue to contribute. I think everybody on the Board is realistic with respect to the challenges facing society with this transition and the work that's going to be required by everybody -- ourselves, the rest of industry, governments around the world, other industries and consumers to make changes on that transition, and that will take time.

道格，我認為這很容易給你答案。長期以來，這一直是我們的主要關注點，當然當我從事這項工作時也是如此。正如您從過去的談話中知道的那樣，我們一直在做的工作是重塑組織以更有效地運營業務。然後重要的是，利用優勢資產和供應對業務進行資本重組一直是一個非常重要的重點。我認為我們過去所做的工作使我們處於非常穩固的位置，可以繼續做出貢獻。我認為董事會中的每個人都對社會在這種轉變中面臨的挑戰以及每個人——我們自己、其他行業、世界各地的政府、其他行業和消費者——需要做出改變的工作——都是現實的。這種轉變需要時間。

And I think as you look at a lot of independent third parties' assessments, they all recognize that this is a challenging area that's going to require a lot of work and expertise and that our industry has an important role to play in helping with that transition, but very importantly, in continuing to meet the need for energy and existing sources of energy. And so that's the balance that we're trying to strike. And of course, I think one of the -- and how that transition evolves and the uncertainty associated with obviously everyone could take a different view on that, our view is the way you help manage some of that uncertainty while you're continuing to meet current demand is to make sure that what you're doing is very advantaged and on the left-hand side of the cost of supply curve, which is what we've been focused on, what we've been talking about.

而且我認為，當您查看許多獨立第三方的評估時，他們都認識到這是一個具有挑戰性的領域，需要大量的工作和專業知識，並且我們的行業在幫助實現這一轉變方面可以發揮重要作用，但非常重要的是，在繼續滿足對能源和現有能源的需求方面。這就是我們試圖達到的平衡。當然，我認為其中之一 - 以及這種轉變如何演變以及與顯然每個人相關的不確定性可能會對此採取不同的看法，我們的觀點是你在繼續開會時幫助管理一些不確定性的方式當前的需求是確保你所做的事情是非常有利的，並且在供應成本曲線的左側，這是我們一直關注的，我們一直在談論的。

So we think we've got a really good portfolio of high-return projects that are advantaged versus the rest of industry. And so as time goes on and that uncertainty begins to manifest itself, we think, irrespective of how that -- the shape of that curve, we're still going to be in a very good position. And so I think strong recognition within the Board that that's the advantage that we've created. And I think commitment to continue to leverage that advantage as we look at opportunities in this space of transition.

因此，我們認為我們擁有一個非常好的高回報項目組合，與其他行業相比具有優勢。因此，隨著時間的推移，這種不確定性開始顯現出來，我們認為，不管那條曲線的形狀如何——我們仍將處於一個非常好的位置。因此，我認為董事會內部強烈認識到這是我們創造的優勢。我認為，當我們在這個過渡空間中尋找機會時，承諾繼續利用這一優勢。

And the final point I would make to try to reassure you, Doug, is I think one of the -- if you go back 18 months, I would say, the litmus test for whether or not somebody was committed to helping manage the transition was whether we are investing in solar and wind. Of course, we were concerned about the returns you could generate in that and the value that we bring to that sector. My sense is over the last 18 months, the broader conversation has quickly evolved and there's this recognition today that more solutions are needed and solutions that fit into our skill set and solutions where we have been working on creating advantage. So I'm confident that as the need for carbon capture is recognized and projects are being advanced in that space whether for biofuels or hydrogen, that the work that we've done on the technology and the fundamentals of carving out advantage there that we will generate an above-industry, above-average return for the things that we do in that space.

道格，我想向你保證的最後一點是，我認為其中之一——如果你回到 18 個月，我會說，是否有人致力於幫助管理過渡的試金石是我們是否投資太陽能和風能。當然，我們擔心您可以在其中產生的回報以及我們為該行業帶來的價值。我的感覺是在過去的 18 個月裡，更廣泛的對話迅速發展，今天人們認識到需要更多的解決方案以及適合我們技能組合的解決方案以及我們一直致力於創造優勢的解決方案。因此，我相信，隨著對碳捕獲的需求得到認可，並且無論是生物燃料還是氫氣，該領域的項目都在推進，我們在技術方面所做的工作以及我們將在該領域開拓優勢的基礎為我們在該領域所做的事情產生高於行業、高於平均水平的回報。

Real quick, if you think about the projects that I talked about, the Chemical and Downstream projects, the Permian and Guyana, very, very good, strong returns, industry-leading returns in that portfolio. I feel as good about that portfolio as I've ever felt in terms of the project returns we have, Doug. So I think we're pursuing high returns. So...

真的很快，如果你想想我談到的項目，化學和下游項目，二疊紀和圭亞那，非常非常好，強勁的回報，該投資組合中行業領先的回報。道格，我對這個投資組合的感覺和我在項目回報方面的感覺一樣好。所以我認為我們正在追求高回報。所以...

My follow-up actually, Jack, is for you. And hopefully, it's a quick one off of that full answer. It really is a follow-up on the Downstream comment earlier, one of the questions about consecutive quarters of weakness, but I would also -- my question, I guess, is Chemicals is hitting on all cylinders and as I understand your business after over 25 years, Jack, it's been about optimizing between those two. So to the extent you can, can you characterize to what extent decisions made to maximize chemicals profitability may be detrimental in your system to refining? And should we look at the two businesses together? And I guess that what I'm really trying to get at is coming out of this recovery, when would you see the investments in refining specific start to show up as improved returns?

傑克，我的後續行動實際上是為你準備的。希望這是完整答案的快速解決方案。這確實是對之前下游評論的跟進，這是關於連續幾個季度疲軟的問題之一，但我也會——我想我的問題是化學品正在全力以赴，而且我了解你的業務結束後25 年了，傑克，一直在這兩者之間進行優化。因此，您能否盡可能描述為最大限度地提高化學品盈利能力而做出的決策在多大程度上可能對您的煉油系統有害？我們應該把這兩項業務放在一起看嗎？而且我想我真正想要達到的是從這次復蘇中走出來，你什麼時候會看到對煉油特定的投資開始顯示出提高的回報？

Yes, Doug, I think you're getting at the value of the integrated sites and the tight integration between our Chemicals and Downstream organization, which is absolutely valuable and we can look at those integrated sites and find several hundred million dollars a quarter of value-add, real bottom-line value-add with all these streams moving back and forth. And what we're doing, I think, an even better job of in recent years, looking at that whole portfolio together. And for instance, the Singapore project is both a Downstream and a Chemicals project and you'll see more of those, I think, where we're involving both sides of the business and creating additional value there.

是的，道格，我認為您正在了解集成站點的價值以及我們的化學品和下游組織之間的緊密集成，這是絕對有價值的，我們可以查看這些集成站點並找到四分之一的價值數億美元-add，真正的底線增值，所有這些流來回移動。我認為，我們正在做的事情是近年來做得更好，一起審視整個投資組合。例如，新加坡項目既是下游項目又是化學品項目，我認為你會看到更多這樣的項目，我們讓業務雙方都參與其中並在那裡創造額外價值。

So I think that integration, we view as a real strength going forward. As you think about the whole energy transition and as we move forward there, I think it's going to be even more valuable as we think about molecule management and increasing the value of all those molecules coming into our integrated complexes.

所以我認為整合是我們前進的真正力量。當您考慮整個能量轉換以及我們向前邁進時，我認為當我們考慮分子管理和增加進入我們綜合複合體的所有這些分子的價值時，它將變得更加有價值。

I think the other point I'd add, Doug, is you're right about it's a little artificial to split between refining and Chemical because you've got molecules flowing back and forth. And the only other point I would add to what Jack said was, if you think in the area of recycling plastic and some of the work we've been doing for advanced recycling, we're actually using our refinery footprint to recycle plastic into the Chemical business. And so it is somewhat arbitrary. We try to make sure we understand the drivers behind each of those. But where you choose to draw the line, obviously, is an internal choice and we're not thinking about it so much along those lines. It's really around how do you maximize the value of the whole.

我想我要補充的另一點，道格，你是對的，在精煉和化學之間分開有點人為，因為你有分子來回流動。我想對傑克所說的唯一補充一點是，如果你認為在回收塑料領域以及我們為高級回收所做的一些工作，我們實際上是在利用我們的煉油廠足跡將塑料回收到化工業務。所以它有點武斷。我們試圖確保我們了解每一個背後的驅動因素。但是，顯然，您選擇在哪裡劃定界限是內部選擇，我們並沒有過多地考慮這些界限。這實際上是圍繞如何最大化整體價值。

We'll go next to Sam Margolin with Wolfe Research.

我們將與 Wolfe Research 一起前往 Sam Margolin。

A couple of operating questions for me. There's a pretty clear inflection in the Upstream U.S. earnings even compared to sort of the last cycle, right? When oil prices might have been very strong, but Upstream had a lot of capital employed and there was differentials. Now all that seems to be out and Upstream net income in the U.S. is better than it's been in a long time. So I wonder if that's on plan? It seems like it is because you invested a lot in infrastructure to enhance that. But just if that's altering any of your conceptions of sort of capital allocation and CapEx tilting here, particularly with respect to the Permian.

對我來說有幾個操作問題。即使與上一個週期相比，美國上游的收益也有一個非常明顯的拐點，對吧？當油價可能非常強勁，但上游有大量資金投入使用並且存在差異時。現在一切似乎都結束了，美國上游的淨收入比很長時間以來都要好。所以我想知道這是否在計劃中？似乎是因為您在基礎設施上投入了大量資金來增強它。但這是否會改變您對資本配置和資本支出傾斜的任何概念，尤其是在二疊紀方面。

Yes. Let me -- I'll answer that one, Sam. I think when you're talking about U.S., you're talking about the Permian. That's what -- from the Upstream perspective, that's what's going to be driving our results there. And I think the slide I showed pretty much demonstrated why that you're seeing that bottom line earnings improvement. We're really improving the development efficiency in the Permian, really hitting on all cylinders, getting the sort efficiency that we've been targeting for the last couple of years and really hitting those three priorities we talked about in terms of increasing cash flow and capital efficiency and really driving down those development costs.

是的。讓我——我會回答那個，山姆。我認為當您談論美國時，您正在談論二疊紀。這就是——從上游的角度來看，這就是推動我們在那裡取得成果的原因。而且我認為我展示的幻燈片幾乎說明了為什麼你會看到盈利的改善。我們確實提高了二疊紀的開發效率，真正達到了所有圓柱體，達到了我們過去幾年一直瞄準的分類效率，並真正達到了我們談到的三個優先事項，即增加現金流和資本效率並真正降低這些開發成本。

So as we look going forward the Permian, we're going to be looking at making sure we hold on to those efficiencies that we've captured, making sure that we -- those are sustainable. And then continuing to work with technology there, and we see some additional benefits of technology being applied to that program. And as we do that, you get confidence with those benefits are sustainable, got the technology built in, then we'll be growing that program over time.

因此，當我們展望二疊紀時，我們將著眼於確保我們保持我們已經獲得的那些效率，確保我們 - 這些是可持續的。然後繼續在那裡使用技術，我們看到技術應用於該計劃的一些額外好處。當我們這樣做時，您會對這些好處是可持續的充滿信心，並且內置了技術，然後我們將隨著時間的推移發展該計劃。

Yes, I'd add, Sam, that we are actually ahead of our plan with respect to the improvements and the work that we did early on with the delineation, the infrastructure we put above ground -- all that spending at the front end to position ourselves as we move forward. And if you recall, the talk we had about technology and what we wanted to do there. That's all coming to fruition. And then I think as we move forward is how do we make sure we're continuing to leverage that effectively. And that's an ongoing area of focus and discussion because we see good value there, good opportunities, but we're going to make sure that we hang onto the gains and continue to leverage that effectively.

是的，我要補充一點，Sam，我們實際上在改進和我們早期所做的劃定工作、我們在地面上放置的基礎設施方面領先於我們的計劃——所有這些都在前端的支出在我們前進的過程中定位自己。如果你還記得，我們討論過技術以及我們想在那裡做什麼。這一切都將實現。然後我認為，隨著我們向前發展，我們如何確保我們繼續有效地利用這一點。這是一個持續關注和討論的領域，因為我們在那裡看到了良好的價值，良好的機會，但我們將確保我們抓住收益並繼續有效地利用它。

And so we have the first train of the large infrastructure plan we have up in Poker Lake is full. And we have that connected to our Wink terminal and our Wink terminal connected all the way into the Gulf Coast. So we have -- we've set up that infrastructure now and it's starting to click in terms of bottom line performance.

因此，我們在 Poker Lake 的大型基礎設施計劃的第一列火車已經滿員。我們將它連接到我們的 Wink 終端，我們的 Wink 終端一直連接到墨西哥灣沿岸。所以我們已經 - 我們現在已經建立了該基礎設施，並且它開始在底線性能方面取得成功。

And then just a follow-up on asset sales. You're paying down debt organically at a pretty healthy pace here. Asset sales were important in prior calls because they were built into your production outlook, too, and it created sort of a flat production outlook, even though you were reinvesting a lot in new assets. I wonder if asset sales are still something that is important to the program? Or if we should think about kind of net production growth with a lower emphasis on asset sales over the next four years?

然後只是對資產銷售的跟進。你在這里以相當健康的速度有機地償還債務。資產銷售在之前的電話會議中很重要，因為它們也包含在您的生產前景中，並且即使您在新資產上進行了大量再投資，它也創造了一種平坦的生產前景。我想知道資產出售是否仍然對項目很重要？或者我們是否應該考慮未來四年對資產銷售的重視程度較低的淨產量增長？

Yes, Sam. I'd tell you, the emphasis has not changed. And I think the way you've characterized it isn't exactly how we were thinking about it -- our drive for divestments and asset sales is really around focusing on concentrating our assets in the areas where we have advantage, where we can leverage some of our organizational capabilities. And so it was really around focusing the portfolio and high-grading it. And that continues to be a really important part of our work there. And so that whole divestment discussion that we've had in the past continues to hold.

是的，山姆。我會告訴你，重點沒有改變。而且我認為你描述它的方式並不完全是我們的想法——我們的撤資和資產出售的動力實際上是圍繞著將我們的資產集中在我們有優勢的領域，我們可以利用一些我們的組織能力。所以它實際上是圍繞著關注投資組合併對其進行高評級。這仍然是我們在那里工作的一個非常重要的部分。因此，我們過去進行的整個撤資討論仍在繼續。

You recall last year, we said, given the market dynamics and the impact of the pandemic that, that was probably going to slow the pace of those --- it certainly didn't slow our activities. And I would tell you today, our activities haven't slowed. And what we're seeing now with additional buyer interest, my expectation is as we move forward, if we can find deal space there, we'll continue to see those things play themselves out.

你記得去年，我們說過，鑑於市場動態和大流行的影響，這可能會放慢這些步伐——它當然不會減緩我們的活動。我今天要告訴你，我們的活動並沒有放緩。我們現在看到的還有更多買家的興趣，我的期望是，隨著我們向前發展，如果我們能在那裡找到交易空間，我們將繼續看到這些事情自己發揮作用。

We'll go next to Roger Read with Wells Fargo.

我們將與富國銀行一起去 Roger Read 旁邊。

Coming back to some of the opening comments you had, Darren, and some of the questions we've got on here, as we think about new Board strategies that you've had, maybe some changes. Do you think we wait until next March at the Investor Day for any sort of new unveiling of what a different Board could provide? Or do you think, from what you've seen so far, most of what we've heard makes sense, right? Get the balance sheet fixed. You've already made a lot of changes on the CapEx front. You do have a tremendous backlog of projects across the Upstream and the Chemicals and Downstream that you've highlighted here. Or do you think that we're in kind of a stasis and we simply have to wait six months to find out anything new and different?

回到您的一些開場評論，Darren，以及我們在這裡提出的一些問題，因為我們考慮您已經擁有的新董事會戰略，也許是一些變化。您是否認為我們要等到明年 3 月的投資者日，才能對不同的董事會可以提供什麼進行任何形式的新揭幕？或者你認為，從你目前看到的情況來看，我們聽到的大部分內容都是有道理的，對吧？固定資產負債表。您已經在資本支出方面做出了很多改變。您在此處強調的上游、化學品和下游項目確實有大量積壓的項目。或者你認為我們處於一種停滯狀態，我們只需要等待六個月才能發現任何新的和不同的東西？

No. I would say, I think, actually, we started a different approach last year that was maybe overwhelmed or mixed up with some of the proxy action that was going on. But we had committed last year to start a more of a continuum in discussions and talking and put less emphasis on the Investor Day big bang and more what I would say is a continuing dialogue about where the business is going. And so after we had our plan endorsed by the Board, we put out a press release that gave some highlights. I talked about it in our fourth quarter call and rolled into the Investor Day.

不。我會說，我認為，實際上，我們去年開始了一種不同的方法，可能會不知所措或與正在進行的一些代理行動混為一談。但我們去年承諾開始更多的討論和談話的連續性，並減少對投資者日大爆炸的重視，更多我想說的是關於業務發展方向的持續對話。因此，在董事會批准了我們的計劃後，我們發布了一份新聞稿，其中提供了一些亮點。我在第四季度的電話會議中談到了它，並進入了投資者日。

I would tell you, that continues to be the new approach that we want to take. I think that was reinforced by a lot of the discussions that we had with shareholders and this desire for continued transparency and more engaged dialogues. And so we're committed to continuing to do that.

我會告訴你，這仍然是我們想要採取的新方法。我認為，我們與股東進行的許多討論以及對持續透明度和更多參與對話的渴望都強化了這一點。因此，我們致力於繼續這樣做。

My expectation was as the Board goes through its deliberations, as our organization develop plans and options, that you're going to see more of a continuum in the discussion and the evolution of those plans going forward. I think, again, I'd just reiterate, if you look at the foundational elements of our strategy, which is really leveraging the strengths of our corporation, the technology, the ability to scale our project's organization, the capital capabilities that we have -- a lot of those fundamentals, those have not changed. And the work that we are doing in technology to advance what we believe are going to be important solutions to address transition -- the transition, that hasn't changed. In fact, what I would tell you is there's probably even more appetite around that. So if you think about the fundamentals of what we can bring to the equation and then what's needed, given that those remain fairly constant, I think I wouldn't see huge shifts in the strategy, but you may see acceleration, additional emphasis scenarios and continuing to leverage on those cores and how they manifest themselves.

我的期望是，隨著董事會進行審議，隨著我們的組織製定計劃和選項，您將在討論和這些計劃的未來發展中看到更多的連續性。我想，我想再次重申，如果你看看我們戰略的基本要素，它實際上是利用我們公司的優勢、技術、擴展我們項目組織的能力、我們擁有的資本能力—— - 很多基本面並沒有改變。我們在技術方面所做的工作是為了推進我們認為將成為解決轉型問題的重要解決方案——轉型，這一點沒有改變。事實上，我要告訴你的是，這方面的胃口可能更大。因此，如果您考慮一下我們可以為方程式帶來什麼的基本面，然後考慮需要什麼，鑑於這些基本面保持相當穩定，我認為我不會看到戰略發生巨大變化，但您可能會看到加速、額外的重點場景和繼續利用這些核心以及它們如何表現自己。

We're committed to leveraging the new perspectives and experience and capabilities we brought into the Board. That was part -- in part some of the reasons that we made some of those changes. And so we've got a really good experience set today and how we leverage that and our thinking and what opportunities that develops, I think will come out of our strategy and planned discussions, and we'll talk to you all about that as that thinking evolves and gets translated into plans and actions.

我們致力於利用我們為董事會帶來的新觀點、經驗和能力。這是我們做出一些改變的部分原因。所以我們今天有一個非常好的經驗，我們如何利用它，我們的想法和發展的機會，我認為將來自我們的戰略和計劃的討論，我們將與你們討論這一切思維演變並轉化為計劃和行動。

That's great. I'm glad it won't be months of wondering what's next. Second question I had for you, looking at the Upstream performance this quarter, which actually was pretty good. And then dovetailing that with the expectation for the additional $3 billion of OpEx savings, which I have recognized is spread across the company. But if we look at your peer that reported today, they returned about the same amount of net income on a lower production volume number. And I know at any quarter, there's moving parts and doing an exact comparison is a little bit unfair. But it is a meaningful number of equality across two different companies. And I was wondering, as you think about the OpEx savings to come, that $3 billion and the Q2 performance, kind of where you think you are today and where you think you might be by the end of '23 when all that's run through as we think about profitability of the upstream?

那太棒了。我很高興這不會是幾個月來想知道接下來會發生什麼。我問你的第二個問題，看看本季度上游的表現，實際上相當不錯。然後將其與額外 30 億美元的 OpEx 節省的預期相吻合，我已經認識到這在整個公司中都有所體現。但是，如果我們看看您今天報告的同行，他們以較低的產量返回了大約相同數量的淨收入。而且我知道在任何時候，都會有活動部件，進行精確比較有點不公平。但在兩家不同的公司之間，這是一個有意義的平等數字。而且我想知道，當您考慮即將節省的運營支出、30 億美元和第二季度的表現時，您認為您今天所處的位置以及您認為到 23 年底您可能會達到的位置，那時所有這些都將通過我們想想上游的盈利能力？

Well, I would -- I guess, a couple of thoughts with respect to that, to your question, Roger. First of all, I'd link back to the comment that we had in the Downstream, not all volumes are created equal. And so when you talk about Upstream and volumes, I think you really got to step back and look at the mix of those volumes and the resource types that you're in and the location of the resources. And so I think, again, while it ultimately is a function of what you deliver, and so no excuses there, it's just understanding that and what leverage you have to affect it. Which ties into -- so I think you start with your portfolio and how you feel about that and where the opportunities to improve it are, which comes back to the capital we've been investing in the Upstream with the view that we got -- we're focused on bringing in more profitable, higher value barrels.

好吧，我想——我想，對於你的問題，羅傑，我想對此有一些想法。首先，我將鏈接回我們在下游的評論，並非所有捲都是平等的。因此，當您談論上游和卷時，我認為您真的必須退後一步，看看這些卷的組合以及您所在的資源類型以及資源的位置。所以我再次認為，雖然它最終是你交付的功能，所以沒有任何藉口，它只是理解這一點以及你必須影響它的槓桿作用。這與 - 所以我認為你從你的投資組合開始，你對它的感受以及改進它的機會在哪裡，這又回到了我們一直在投資上游的資本，我們認為 -我們專注於引進利潤更高、價值更高的桶。

And the divestment work that we've been doing, which we just touched on, which is taking the areas, the volumes and some of the projects where an asset that you feel like it may have a higher value to others and shifting those out of our portfolio. So that high-grading of the portfolio and the resulting change in the mix of our barrels and volumes, I think is a very important part of the equation. And one of the things we've been very focused on, I would just tell you, that is a big driver as you look across the competitive landscape, and one of the reasons why we've been so focused on that space.

以及我們一直在做的撤資工作，我們剛剛談到了，它正在將您認為可能對其他人具有更高價值的資產的區域、數量和一些項目轉移出去我們的投資組合。因此，投資組合的高等級以及由此產生的我們的桶和數量組合的變化，我認為是等式的一個非常重要的部分。我只想告訴你，我們一直非常關注的一件事是，當你縱觀競爭格局時，這是一個很大的驅動力，也是我們如此專注於該領域的原因之一。

And then above and beyond that, when you think about the organizational construct, how you're managing that, the focus that you've got end-to-end focus along that value chain. That has been a very big change that we've made in the organization. And I think we're seeing the benefits of that today and how we're running Upstream, and my expectation is we'll continue to see additional benefits manifest themselves with time. And that's -- with respect to effectiveness, and responding more effectively to market signals and delivering value there, and it's also a function of efficiency in terms of additional cost reduction. So I would expect to continue to see evolving, improving business in the Upstream just as I expect to see that in our Chemical and Downstream business.

除此之外，當你考慮組織結構時，你是如何管理它的，你在價值鏈上擁有端到端的焦點。這是我們在組織中做出的非常大的改變。我認為我們今天看到了它的好處以及我們如何在上游運行，我的期望是隨著時間的推移，我們將繼續看到更多的好處。這就是 - 關於有效性，更有效地響應市場信號並在那裡交付價值，這也是效率在額外成本降低方面的功能。因此，正如我期望在我們的化工和下游業務中看到的那樣，我希望繼續看到上游業務的發展和改善。

In addition, Roger, to the divestments and the OpEx and efficiency work we're doing, just the profitability of the investments I've mentioned earlier. There's not any other -- Guyana doesn't have a peer out there right now. And we have a large position there and continue to grow it. So it's going to make a big impact over time.

此外，羅傑，對於我們正在進行的撤資、運營支出和效率工作，只是我之前提到的投資的盈利能力。沒有其他的——圭亞那現在沒有同行。我們在那裡有很大的位置並繼續發展它。所以隨著時間的推移，它會產生很大的影響。

Operator, we probably have time for one more question.

接線員，我們可能還有時間再問一個問題。

Certainly. Our last question will be from Jason Gabelman with Cowen.

當然。我們的最後一個問題來自 Jason Gabelman 和 Cowen。

I first wanted to come back to shareholder distributions, if I can. It looks like the quarterly dividend has been flat for now a couple of years. Can you just discuss if there was thought in increasing the dividend this quarter? What needs to happen to increase the dividend moving forward? And maybe connect that to debt levels? And connected to that, would you consider some sort of shareholder distribution strategy that gives cash to shareholders as oil prices are kind of above any long-term trend you expect?

如果可以的話，我首先想回到股東分配。看起來季度股息幾年來一直持平。您能否討論一下本季度是否有增加股息的想法？需要做些什麼來增加未來的股息？也許將其與債務水平聯繫起來？與此相關的是，您是否會考慮某種股東分配策略，在油價高於您預期的任何長期趨勢時向股東提供現金？

And then my second question is on Chemicals. It seems like the segment kind of has a lack of transparency with two respects. One in the performance product earnings and two, on benefits to greenhouse gas emissions. So on the performance products, can you discuss what that's contributing currently -- if there was kind of an outsized benefit because of the overall chemicals environment strength? And what kind of a normalized earnings looks like moving forward in that performance products?

然後我的第二個問題是關於化學品的。似乎該細分市場在兩個方面缺乏透明度。一是業績產品收益，二是溫室氣體排放收益。那麼關於性能產品，您能否討論一下目前的貢獻——如果由於整體化學環境強度而產生了巨大的利益？什麼樣的標準化收益看起來像在該性能產品中向前發展？

And then related to emissions, you mentioned that the performance products really help with emissions reductions, but Exxon maybe doesn't get that benefit because it's not like a Scope 3 reduction or your own emissions reductions. Is there any thought to supporting kind of emissions reporting scheme that awards Exxon for producing products that helps the world reduce emissions even if it doesn't reduce your own emissions? That's it. Sorry, I know that was a lot, but I appreciate it.

然後關於排放，您提到性能產品確實有助於減排，但埃克森美孚可能沒有獲得這種好處，因為它不像範圍 3 減排或您自己的減排。是否有任何想法支持一種排放報告計劃，該計劃獎勵埃克森美孚生產的產品，幫助世界減少排放，即使它不會減少您自己的排放？而已。對不起，我知道這很多，但我很感激。

I appreciate your questions, Jason. And I'm going to -- I will let Jack talk to the Chemical piece of your question, and I'll address the capital allocation. What I will, though, just on the Chemical ones. We do look at that in terms of the product emissions, and we do recognize the opportunity that Chemicals brings in terms of helping society achieve that lower emissions. That is something that we talk a lot about. We've -- gas is another one I would add with respect to the alternatives that are out there today. So it is an important part of the equation that we think about and continue to work. And I'm less focused on how you take credit for it and more focused on making sure that it happens. But I'll let Jack spend some more time on that.

我很感激你的問題，傑森。我要 - 我會讓傑克談談你問題中的化學部分，我會解決資本分配問題。不過，我會在化學上做些什麼。我們確實從產品排放的角度來看待這一點，我們確實認識到化學品在幫助社會實現更低排放方面帶來的機會。這是我們經常談論的事情。我們已經 - 就今天的替代品而言，我會添加另一種氣體。因此，這是我們思考並繼續工作的方程式的重要組成部分。而且我不太關注你如何獲得它的榮譽，而是更專注於確保它發生。但我會讓傑克多花點時間在這上面。

With respect to your capital allocation and the dividends, I would tell you that the foundational elements of our capital allocation remain unchanged with respect to making sure that we're finding high-return, industry-advantaged investments because that underpins basically everything else we do for the long term. We're a capital-intensive industry. And so you better be making sure that you've got a good program of investments of capital, particularly in the depletion side of the business. Maintaining the balance sheet has always been an important part. We drew down heavily, and that advantage paid off last year, and we're going to rebuild that. So as you said, that's part of our strategy. And then shareholders distributions have been the third leg of that stool, an important aspect.

關於您的資本分配和股息，我會告訴您，在確保我們找到高回報、行業優勢投資方面，我們資本配置的基本要素保持不變，因為這基本上支撐了我們所做的一切其他事情從長遠來看。我們是資本密集型行業。所以你最好確保你有一個好的資本投資計劃，特別是在業務的枯竭方面。維護資產負債表一直是一個重要部分。我們大幅縮水，這種優勢在去年得到了回報，我們將重建它。正如你所說，這是我們戰略的一部分。然後股東分配一直是該凳子的第三站，一個重要方面。

And so with respect to that, of course, you heard, we think we've got a good plan on our investments and the range that we'll be investing going forward. We're making good progress on the debt, particularly given the higher price environments than anticipated. And then on distribution, it is part of the conversation and the discussions we've had. I would tell you, we have always felt a very strong commitment to our base shareholders to deliver on a dividend, a reliable and growing dividend, and that continues to be part of the conversation. And I would say the Board would like to continue to deliver on that commitment. And so we continue -- we're committed to that, a reliable dividend and one that grows with time.

因此，關於這一點，當然，你聽說了，我們認為我們對我們的投資和未來的投資範圍有一個很好的計劃。我們在債務方面取得了良好進展，特別是考慮到價格環境高於預期。然後在分發時，它是我們進行過的對話和討論的一部分。我會告訴你，我們一直對我們的基本股東感到非常堅定的承諾，即提供股息，可靠且不斷增長的股息，這將繼續成為對話的一部分。我想說，董事會希望繼續兌現這一承諾。所以我們繼續——我們致力於這一點，一個可靠的紅利，隨著時間的推移而增長。

And obviously, if we're maintaining capital in the range that we want, we get our debt back to levels that assure us the ability to ride through the cycles, and we've got a manageable dividend that's reliable and growing. Recognize any time you raise the dividend, that brings the burden up. We're going to continue to do that. But at the same time, they want to manage that, that total outlay in the dividend. And so buybacks and other distributions become part of that equation, particularly when to redistribute cash. So that's all on the table. And I think as we move through this year and depending on where prices are at, those opportunities will grow in relevance. And with a capital program that's pretty well defined and a debt that -- objective that's pretty well defined, you've got this opportunity on distributions, I think the Board will continue to evaluate as we go forward.

顯然，如果我們將資本維持在我們想要的範圍內，我們的債務就會恢復到能夠確保我們有能力度過週期的水平，並且我們可以獲得可靠且不斷增長的可管理股息。認識到任何時候你提高股息，都會增加負擔。我們將繼續這樣做。但與此同時，他們希望管理這一點，即股息的總支出。因此，回購和其他分配成為該等式的一部分，尤其是在重新分配現金時。所以這一切都在桌面上。我認為隨著我們今年的發展，根據價格的水平，這些機會將變得越來越重要。有了一個非常明確的資本計劃和一個明確定義的債務目標，你就有了這個分配的機會，我認為董事會將在我們前進的過程中繼續評估。

So back on the performance products, they're -- that's about -- think about that's about 1/3 of our product portfolio in Chemicals, and I showed you that's going to grow at 70% by 2027. And importantly, grow earnings more. And that's because that 10% to 25% uplift we generally get on our performance products. And I think that was demonstrated if you look at this quarter, a lot of -- almost all the Chemical companies benefited from the dynamics we had in the quarter. But you saw the earnings power of our chemicals company because of this higher margin, because of the technology we bring in those performance products.

所以回到性能產品，它們 - 差不多 - 想想這大約是我們化學品產品組合的 1/3，我向你展示了到 2027 年它將以 70% 的速度增長。重要的是，增加收益更多.那是因為我們通常會在性能產品上獲得 10% 到 25% 的提升。我認為，如果你看一下本季度，很多——幾乎所有的化工公司都從我們本季度的動態中受益。但是你看到了我們化工公司的盈利能力，因為利潤率更高，因為我們引進了這些高性能產品的技術。

And the other advantage those have -- when you think about all our investments going forward, these investments are focused on generating those performance products, and they're not more capital intensive. This is catalyst technology. So it's not more capital intensive and yet we get -- we're having -- we're generating a product that gets 10% to 25% more margin. So you can imagine those investments look more profitable as well. So it's a key part of our strategy going forward, and we're just continuing to double down on that in terms of technology improvements and growing those products preferential to the rest of our Chemical portfolio.

還有另一個優勢——當你考慮我們未來的所有投資時，這些投資都集中在產生那些性能產品上，而且它們不是資本密集型的。這是催化劑技術。所以它不是資本密集型，但我們得到 - 我們正在擁有 - 我們正在生產一種利潤率提高 10% 到 25% 的產品。所以你可以想像這些投資看起來也更有利可圖。因此，這是我們未來戰略的關鍵部分，我們只是在技術改進方面繼續加倍努力，並讓這些產品優先於我們的其他化學產品組合。

Thank you. I want to thank Darren, Jack for joining us on the call. I also want to thank all those on the line. We appreciate your interest and the opportunity to highlight our second quarter results. We hope you enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you, and please be safe.

謝謝你。我要感謝達倫和傑克加入我們的電話會議。我還要感謝所有在線的人。我們感謝您的興趣和展示我們第二季度業績的機會。我們希望您能享受剩下的一天。謝謝，請注意安全。

And this concludes today's call. We thank everyone again for their participation.

今天的電話會議到此結束。我們再次感謝大家的參與。