Exxon may delay investments after 2017, predicts output to rise slowly

Exxon Mobil Corp, the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company, said it may delay some of its planned investments if crude prices remained low.

The company will continue with projects through 2017, but after that investment decision will depend on oil prices, Rex Tillerson, Exxon's chief executive officer said.

Tillerson expects the low prices to remain for a while because of the U.S. shale production and as some oil supply disruptions due to political reasons may come back to its normal levels at any time.

Exxon slashed its investment spending forecasts to $34 billion over the coming couple of years, instead of previous estimates of nearly $37 billion.

Now, Exxon sees its oil and gas output rising slowly through 2017, with 2 percent increase this year and 3 percent in each of the following two years.