Wrong.
Exxon is not even close to the biggest oil producer in the world. They can not control the market and if there were all that much oil within easy reach, someone else would take it in a minute and increase their revenues.
Exactly. The excerpt here doesn't contain the money quotes:
"The first hand that shot up was that of Deutsche Bank (DB) oil analyst Paul Sankey, who wanted to know why the company wasn't showing any volume growth. "We don't start with a volume target and then work backwards," Tillerson explained. Instead, he said, his team examines the available investment opportunities, figures out what prices they'll likely get for that output down the road, and places their bets accordingly. "It really goes back to what is an acceptable investment return for us," Tillerson said. In other words, producing incremental barrels just to ease prices for consumers is not part of the company's calculations. Last year, ExxonMobil led the industry with a return on capital of 32%."(...)
"Less supply of a commodity means higher prices. Higher oil prices mean more profits for the oil companies."
Wrong.
Exxon is not even close to the biggest oil producer in the world. They can not control the market and if there were all that much oil within easy reach, someone else would take it in a minute and increase their revenues.