Exxon to step up search for more oil and natural gas

Company to invest about $37bn a year over next five years to expand supply of traditional fuels while also advancing new energy sources
Exxon's Rex Tillerson said investment was needed to expand the supply of traditional fuels. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Exxon has said it will spend about $185bn (£117bn) on finding more oil and natural gas to meet an expected increase in energy demand over the next five years.

In a statement issued ahead of a presentation at the New York Stock Exchange, the company's CEO, Rex Tillerson, said the investment – about $37bn a year – was needed to expand the supply of traditional fuels such as oil and gas while also advancing new energy sources.

Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded energy company, expects global energy demand to increase 30% by 2040 compared with 2010 levels.

Exxon, Chevron, BP and Royal Dutch Shell all produced less crude last year than in the year before that.

They are struggling to tap new sources of oil fast enough in an environment in which big finds are rarer and costlier to exploit. Potential fields lie deep under the seabed, or in shale rock formations that require expensive technology to crack open.