Big Oil leaders Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Shell continue to hike their crude oil production volumes from West Texas’s Permian Basin to the Gulf of Mexico to deepwater Guyana despite concerns of a rising global oil glut as OPEC nations keep exporting more barrels each month.
The production increases threaten to further exacerbate a weaker oil price environment predicted to go lower heading into 2026 with the U.S. benchmark hovering near the $60-per-barrel threshold below which companies struggle to maintain profitability. But the biggest players have more scale to remain undeterred by lower commodity prices.
For the two largest American players, Exxon Mobil and Chevron, primary growth remains in the still-booming Permian where Exxon churned out a record high of 1.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the third quarter, including natural gas volumes. Chevron is the only other company to exceed the seven-figure mark there, coming in at 1.06 million barrels daily.
“We set yet another production record,” said Exxon chairman and CEO Darren Woods during the third-quarter earnings call on Friday. “Our Permian production continues to grow well into the next decade. It clearly differentiates us from our competitors, who are talking about reduced investments, peak production, or a shift to harvest mode.”
Exxon’s global volumes grew from 4.63 million barrels of oil equivalent daily in the second quarter to 4.77 barrels a day in the third. Exxon even aims to hit 5.4 million barrels by 2030, driven mostly by the Permian and its pioneering offshore Guyana development.
Chevron’s biggest growth area was the Permian, too, without even trying. Chevron is actively cutting its Permian capital expenditure to save money and keep production there plateaued to 1 million barrels daily. But Chevron still gained almost 60,000 barrels daily from the second quarter.
“It really highlights the efficiency gains. The production is an outcome there,” said Chevron chairman and CEO Mike Wirth on his Friday earnings call. “We’ve been able to continue to deliver strong performance with fewer [drilling] rigs and fewer completions spreads. We expect to move into 2026 with good momentum.”
The strong momentum is expected to run into pricing headwinds as OPEC—led by Saudi Arabia—continues to unwind years of production cuts that kept pricing higher to regain market share and, in an unspoken added benefit, appease President Trump and his outspoken desire for lower prices at the pump.
“What we see at the moment is indeed headwinds on the supply-demand fundamentals going into 2026 and a highly credible scenario that there is an oversupply in 2026,” said Shell CEO Wael Sawan. “I think in the short to medium term, there are headwinds. Longer term, we continue to have strong conviction in crude prices going forward.”
