Exxon Mobil Corp. took four hours on Wednesday morning to tell investors: “Hold on a bit, we got this.” But investors aren’t in a patient mood with high-spending oil and gas companies, and Exxon’s capital-expenditure budget – summary: not much change from $35 billion a year – drew the unsurprising response. Yet, looking beyond the next couple of years, Exxon provided a lot for everyone, investors and competitors, to chew on. Exxon is doing nothing less than an overhaul of the portfolio, as might be expected after a few years of setbacks. When you’re this big – the size of an OPEC producer – that costs money. Exxon projects it will generate $190 billion of free cash flow through 2025, equivalent to almost 60 percent of its current market cap and implying $90 billion after dividends potentially available for buybacks. However, eyeballing the fuzzy bars on Exxon’s deck, that […]