☰

Empresas y finanzas

Exxon CEO says more fracking rules hinder development


    HOUSTON (Reuters) - State and local regulations in shale oil- and natural gas-rich plays across the United States provides sufficient oversight while adding federal layers hinders development, Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Rex Tillerson said on Friday.

    Tillerson, addressing an audience of energy executives at the annual CERAWeek conference in Houston, said layers, complex regulatory professes in oil and gas development "has become an obstacle to getting anything done."

    He said state and local governments with a close-up view of needed protections sufficiently oversee oil and gas activity while collaborating with producers.

    "They provide us the roadmap with how to get something done," Tillerson said. "Today the regulatory process is now so complicated and so involved with so many different agencies, it's a roadmap on how to not get anything done."

    He cited President Barack Obama's rejection of a federal permit to allow TransCanada to build its proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas to transport Canadian oil to Gulf Coast refineries.

    Environmental groups and some states had opposed the pipeline on integrity concerns and whether it would increase dependence on emissions-heavy Canadian oil production.

    Tillerson called the rejection of the permit an "unfortunate decision" that was "a product of political calculations in Washington."

    (Reporting By Kristen Hays; Editing by Marguerita Choy)