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Hello from Houston.
The news from Texas: ExxonMobil is doubling down on oil — despite concerns that the market faces a looming oversupply crisis.
The US supermajor said yesterday that it would crank up output by almost a fifth by the end of the decade, dialling up spending plans even as some of its peers hold back amid growing fears of a supply glut.
The 5.4mn barrels of oil equivalent the company plans to pump daily by the end of the decade is more than that of most Opec countries and would turn the west’s biggest producer into a global oil and gas behemoth.
Exxon’s argument is that it can produce oil much more cheaply than its rivals, making it best placed to supply what it predicts will be an enduring global thirst for fossil fuels — even if prices slide.
Elsewhere, the Biden administration yesterday hit China with a volley of new tariffs on critical mineral imports, a parting gift by the president to Beijing as he looks to shore up the nascent US cleantech manufacturing space before leaving office. My colleague Aime Williams had the scoop.
That is also the topic of today’s newsletter. With resource nationalism on the march over the metals and minerals needed to power the economies of the future, our commodities correspondent Camilla Hodgson digs into a new report on what this means for an already-tense geopolitical situation.
The verdict? We’ve entered a new era of protectionism. Read on for more.
As ever, thanks for reading. Email me at myles.mccormick@ft.com — Myles
Western democracies drive a global rise in resource nationalism
Businesses worldwide face increased risk from a global rise in protectionism as countries scramble to secure access to the minerals critical to battery manufacturing and the energy transition, according to new research.