Exxon Mobil adds 1.5B barrels to proved reserves

IRVING, Texas - Exxon Mobil Corp. said Monday it added 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent to its proved reserves last year, once again extending a positive trend of replacing more barrels than it produced.

The added reserves for the industry's biggest player totaled 103 percent of its 2008 output.

Reserve replacements represent the ratio of reserves found over production for a given period. Analysts typically say that for a company to indicate growth, reserves replacement should average more than 100 percent over a three- to five-year period.

Chief Executive Rex Tillerson said in a statement that the company has replaced an average of 110 percent production in the last 10 years.

Proved reserves are a key asset of oil companies.

The company said it added 2.2 billion oil-equivalent barrels to its resource base in 2008, with reserves additions from the Kearl Phase 1 oil sands project in Canada totaling 1.1 billion oil-equivalent barrels. It said proved additions were also made in the U.S., Norway, Nigeria, Australia and Angola.

For 2008, the company's resource base — which includes proved and probable reserves — grew by 0.3 billion oil-equivalent barrels to 72.4 billion oil-equivalent barrels. That figure includes production, revisions to existing discoveries, asset sales and increased government take, which reduced the base by 0.5 billion oil-equivalent barrels.

Last month Exxon reported a U.S. record for annual profit even as its fourth-quarter results fell 33 percent to $7.8 billion.

Shares of Exxon closed Friday at $74.59. U.S. financial markets are closed Monday for Presidents Day.

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