Business

By Aftab Ahmed

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The Indian government is considering spending an additional 2 trillion rupees ($26 billion) in the 2022/23 fiscal year to cushion consumers from rising prices and fight multi-year high inflation, two government officials told Reuters.

The new measures will be double the 1 trillion rupees hit government revenues could take from tax cuts on petrol and diesel the finance minister announced on Saturday, both the officials said.

India’s retail inflation rose to an eight-year high in April, while wholesale inflation rose to at least a 17-year high, posing a major headache for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government ahead of elections to several state assemblies this year. 

“We are fully focussed on bringing down inflation. The impact of Ukraine crisis was worse than anyone’s imagination,” one official, who did not want to be named, said.

The government estimates another 500 billion Indian rupees additional funds will be needed to subsidise fertilisers, from the current estimate of 2.15 trillion rupees, the two officials said.

The government could also deliver another round of tax cuts on petrol and diesel if crude oil continues to rise that could mean an added hit of 1 trillion-1.5 trillion rupees in the 2022/23 fiscal year started on April 1, the second official said.

Both the officials did not want to be named as they are not authorised to disclose the details.

The government did not immediately comment outside office hours.

One of the officials said the government may need to borrow additional sums from the market to fund these measures and that could mean a slippage from the its deficit target of 6.4% of GDP for 2022-23.

The official did not quantify the amount of borrowing or fiscal slippage saying it depended on how much funds they eventually divert from the budget in the fiscal year.

The Indian government plans to borrow a record 14.31 trillion rupees in the current fiscal year, according to budget announcements made in February.

The other official said the additional borrowing will not impact the planned April-September borrowing of 8.45 trillion rupees and may be undertaken in January-March 2023.

($1 = 77.8500 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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By Nupur Anand

MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s Paytm Payments Bank, which facilitates transactions on mobile commerce platform Paytm, expects the central bank to allow it to resume taking on new customers in the next few months, a top executive told Reuters.

In March, the Reserve Bank of India ordered a comprehensive audit of the company’s IT systems, citing “material” supervisory concerns, without elaborating further, and barring it from taking on new customers.

The bank is working with the RBI to complete the IT audit and address the regulator’s concerns.

“The process is underway and we think it should take three to five months from where we are right now,” Madhur Deora, group chief financial officer, Paytm, told Reuters on Sunday.

The central bank did not immediately respond to an email seeking comments.

Paytm in March denied a Bloomberg news report that said RBI had found its servers were sharing information with China-based entities that indirectly own a stake in the firm.

Paytm is backed by China’s Alibaba Group Holding and its affiliate Ant Group.

One 97 Communications Ltd, the parent of fintech firm Paytm, on Friday reported a wider fourth-quarter loss due to higher payment processing, marketing and employee costs.

Deora said the company was on track to achieve profitability by September 2023.

“We are seeing good growth in high margin businesses and as a result we are seeing improvements in contribution margin.”

“Our indirect expenses will not grow as fast as last year as we don’t expect to make any significant investments in new businesses or employee cost this year as we have already made those in the last year,” he added.

Paytm made its stock market debut in November last year in one of the country’s biggest-ever initial public offerings, but the shares have since sunk 70%.

(Reporting by Nupur Anand; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

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DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — If you’re coming to Davos this year, try to take the train instead of flying, organizers of the World Economic Forum said.

So I did.

That meant a 12-hour journey from London to the exclusive gathering in the Swiss Alps, which I’m helping cover for The Associated Press.

Taking a train is much less convenient than a plane, but the scenery made up for it — the rolling farm fields of England and France gave way to Switzerland’s towering mountains and idyllic valleys dotted with chalets. And my carbon footprint will be a lot lower than a flight.

To many, Davos conjures up images of government leaders, billionaire elites and corporate titans jetting in on carbon-spewing private planes even as the meeting increasingly focuses on climate change.

Organizers have been stung by such criticism, even dedicating a webpage in past years to debunk those claims. Encouraging European attendees to come by train is part of their efforts to burnish the event’s sustainability credentials amid criticism it’s merely a talking shop that doesn’t produce systemic change.

I’m not the first to go by train. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg famously took a 32-hour train ride to get to the Davos meeting in 2019, where she astonished participants with a fiery speech. I’m also riding a broader wave of traveler interest in train trips over short-haul flights tied to climate guilt.

My journey begins at London’s St. Pancras International train station, where I board the high-speed Eurostar that whisks me through a tunnel under the English Channel to Paris in about two and a half hours. There I take a short metro ride to another train station for the next four-hour leg to Zurich.

By plane, I would have been crammed on a discount flight from London’s Gatwick Airport for the hour and 40-minute flight to Zurich, the closest airport to Davos.

But for those who don’t live in Europe, a plane ride is unavoidable. And to speed up my trip after days of back-to-back speeches from government leaders and sessions about decarbonization, the global economic outlook and the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, that’s how I’ll be traveling home.

Aboard the French high-speed TGV train, the first-class seats are comfy and spacious and the upper deck view offers pleasant scenes of the countryside whizzing by at 320 kilometers an hour (about 200 mph).

If I had flown, my 870-kilometer trip would have emitted up to 197 kilograms (434 pounds) of carbon dioxide per passenger into the atmosphere.

The same trip by train would contribute a fraction of that amount — 12.2 kilograms, according to ecopassenger.org.

World Economic Forum officials say climate is a priority for this year’s meeting and tout its green credentials.

“The overwhelming majority of participants arrive by shuttle or by train, and emissions in Davos actually go down during the week of the meeting,” forum Managing Director Adrian Monck told reporters ahead of the event, without elaborating.

Organizers say that since 2017 they have offset 100% of the carbon emissions from the group’s activities by supporting environmental projects in Switzerland and elsewhere. Experts say offsets can be problematic because there’s no guarantee they’ll deliver on reducing emissions.

The forum also can provide sustainable jet fuel at Zurich’s airport for those who take private jets.

“It’s probably one of the most sustainably organized meetings in the world, if not the most sustainable,” Monck said.

High-profile attendees include U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate and Alok Sharma, head of last year’s U.N. climate conference, COP26.

Kerry, who has been criticized for his use of a private jet belonging to his wife’s family, will be traveling by commercial plane to the Davos meeting, his spokesperson said.

Sharma, a British lawmaker who drew flak last year for his frequent flights, will travel by plane and train.

“Carbon emissions associated with the COP President’s travel will be offset for the Presidency year,” the U.K. government said, without providing further details.

Nakate declined to comment on her travel.

Aviation accounts for about 2% of global carbon emissions.

The World Economic Forum has acknowledged that “from an environmental perspective, taking a private jet is the worst way to travel to Davos.”

Private jets emit about 10 times the carbon dioxide per person that commercial flights do and about 50 times more than an equivalent train journey, said Jo Dardenne, aviation manager at Brussels-based climate policy group Transport & Environment.

Jet engines also spew soot and nitrous oxide, which contributes to pollution around airports and heat-trapping atmospheric contrails, she said.

Sustainable jet fuel is a step in the right direction, depending on the source, but carbon offsetting deserves more skepticism because of concerns such as double counting, she said.

“It’s just especially a bit socially and politically unfair for some sectors to continue to rely on offsetting instead of actually reducing their emissions,” while others face pressure to reduce their climate impact, Dardenne said.

Eymeric Segard, CEO of Swiss private jet chartering company LunaJets, said some VIPs have no other choice than to fly private.

“Because of their visibility and fact that everybody knows them, they just cannot take a commercial aircraft,” he said.

“Some don’t have three weeks free to take sailboats to cross the Atlantic like our friend Greta. So what’s the alternative?”

Segard declined to discuss how much demand he’s seeing for travel to Davos but said his company, which acts like a taxi dispatcher for private jets, tries to reduce carbon emissions by looking for “empty leg flights,” which have already been chartered but have extra seats.

Not only is it cheaper but “the planet is happy because anyway the plane was gonna fly, so at least we put someone on it,” he said.

From Zurich’s main train station, I change again, this time boarding a slower local train. This is where most people can’t avoid rail as they head to Davos, which doesn’t have an airport, unless they take a shuttle or helicopter from Zurich or two other small nearby airports.

Fashionably dressed people hauling expensive-looking luggage climbed aboard, mentioning to others what panels they’re part of in Davos.

The train skirts Lake Zurich and heads into the mountains. After another quick change at a local station, I’m down to my last hour, and the scenery becomes more impressive with each mile.

The narrow-gauge train trundles through steep valleys and alongside whitewater rivers, overshadowed by forested peaks with chalets scattered on grassy lower slopes until arriving in Davos. Here my journey ends but my work for the week begins.

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Kelvin Chan is an AP business writer in London. Follow him at http://twitter.com/chanman.

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PLANO, Texas (AP) — The actor who played Red Power Ranger in the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” films and television series has been charged with wire fraud conspiracy relating to the federal Paycheck Protection Program, officials said.

Jason Lawrence Geiger, 47, of McKinney, Texas, is one of 19 defendants named in a federal indictment, the FBI said. Acting under the name Austin St. John, Geiger played Jason Lee Scott, the Red Power Ranger.

Geiger was arrested Tuesday and remained jailed pending a Monday detention hearing before a federal magistrate in the Dallas suburb of Plano, according to court documents. He pleaded not guilty to the single count against him and “intends to vigorously defend himself against this allegation,” said his attorney, David Klaudt of Dallas.

The Payroll Protection Program was part of the CARES Act designed to provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans who were suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement issued Thursday, federal prosecutors said the 19 defendants made fraudulent applications for payroll protection benefits during the pandemic lockdown and used the proceeds for personal purchases and expenditures. In all, the defendants were accused of obtaining at least 16 loans worth at least $3.5 million.

If convicted, each could be sentenced to up to 20 years in federal prison.

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By Noel Randewich and Amruta Khandekar

(Reuters) – Wall Street ended mixed on Friday after a volatile session that saw Tesla slump and other growth stocks also lose ground.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq logged their seventh straight week of losses, their longest losing streak since the end of the dotcom bubble in 2001.

The Dow suffered its eighth consecutive weekly decline, its longest since 1932 during the Great Depression.

Worries about surging inflation and rising interest rates have pummeled the U.S. stock market this year, with danger signals from Walmart Inc and other retailers this week adding to fears about the economy.

The S&P 500 spent most of the session in negative territory and at one point was down just over 20% from its Jan. 3 record high close before ending down 18% from that level and flat for the day.

Closing down 20% from that record level would confirm the S&P 500 has been in a bear market since reaching that January high, according to a common definition.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was last down about 27% from its record close in November 2021.

Graphic: S&P 500 bear markets – https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/klpykodqmpg/Pasted%20image%201653065756392.png

Weighing heavily on the S&P 500, Tesla tumbled 6.4% after Chief Executive Elon Musk denounced as “utterly untrue” claims in a news report that he sexually harassed a flight attendant on a private jet in 2016.

Other megacap stocks also fell, with Apple Google-owner Alphabet Inc down 1.3% and Nvidia losing 2.5%.

Shares of Deere & Co dropped 14% after the heavy equipment maker posted downbeat quarterly revenue.

Pfizer rose 3.6%, helping the S&P 500 avoid a loss for the day.

Recent disappointing forecasts from big retailers Walmart, Kohl’s Corp and Target Inc have rattled market sentiment, adding to evidence that rising prices have started to hurt the purchasing power of U.S. consumers.

On Friday, Ross Stores plunged 22.5% after the discount apparel retailer cut its 2022 forecasts for sales and profit, while Vans brand owner VF Corp gained 6.1% on strong 2023 revenue outlook.

Traders are pricing in 50-basis point rate hikes by the U.S. central bank in June and July.

The S&P 500 edged up 0.01% to end the session at 3,901.36 points.

The Nasdaq declined 0.30% to 11,354.62 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.03% to 31,261.90 points.

Graphic: S&P 500’s busiest trades – https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/gdpzyedkzvw/SPX_by_busiest_trades.png

For the week, the S&P 500 fell 3.0%, the Dow lost 2.9% and the Nasdaq declined 3.8%.

About two thirds of S&P 500 stocks are down 20% or more from their 52-week highs.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 13.0 billion shares, compared with a 13.5 billion average over the last 20 trading days.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.16-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.24-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week highs and 48 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 11 new highs and 353 new lows.

(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Arun Koyyur and Grant McCool)

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(Reuters) – The first shipments of infant formula from Europe to address a critical shortage in the United States should begin arriving this weekend, President Joe Biden said on Friday amid criticism of his administration’s handling of the issue.

Biden said on Twitter the initial military cargo plane flights under “Operation Fly Formula” meant that “up to 1.5 million bottles of safe Nestlé infant formula will be coming to U.S. shelves as soon as possible.”

A Feb. 17 recall by top baby formula maker Abbott Laboratories during an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration has created one of the most urgent food shortages in recent history for U.S. families.

Biden this week said he was invoking the Defense Production Act to increase supplies.

“The Secretary of Defense ordered today the first flights supporting Operation Fly Formula. Due to the urgency of the situation, these flights will comprise U.S. military aircraft and will depart Ramstein Air Base in Germany this weekend,” White House Communications Director Kate Berner said on Twitter.

“The flights will transport 132 pallets of Nestlé Health Science Alfamino Infant and Alfamino Junior formula to Indianapolis, IN. These formulas have been prioritized because they serve a critical medical purpose and are in short supply in the US because of the plant closure,” Berner wrote.

Aptamil maker Danone SA has stepped up shipments of infant formula from Europe to address a shortage in the United States, according to U.S customs data and an analysis of ocean cargo data by shipping consultancy Ocean Audit for Reuters.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by William Mallard)

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KOENIGSWINTER, Germany (AP) — The Group of Seven leading economies are set to agree on more than $18 billion in aid for Ukrainian defense efforts as meetings of finance ministers close Friday, Germany’s finance minister told Bloomberg Television.

“I think it’s a very good signal that the G-7 nations are standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine because they are not only defending themselves, they are defending our values,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said in an interview with Bloomberg.

A representative from the U.S. Treasury Department declined to verify the amount allocated, and a spokesman from the German finance ministry declined to comment to The Associated Press.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other leaders spoke this week about the need for allies to put together enough additional aid to help Ukraine “get through” the Russian invasion.

“All of us pledged to do what’s necessary to fill the gap,” Yellen said Thursday as the ministers finished their first of two days of talks. “We’re going to put together the resources that they need.”

The G-7 finance ministers also have grappled with deepening inflation, food security concerns and the immediate effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine during their talks.

Lindner, the meeting’s host, told reporters ahead of the meeting that Ukraine will likely need “a number of double-digit billion euros” over the coming months.

As the finance ministers were meeting in Germany, the U.S. overwhelmingly approved its own $40 billion infusion of military and economic aid for Ukraine and its allies. The legislation was backed by every voting Democrat and most Republicans.

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By Simon Jessop and Ross Kerber

LONDON/BOSTON (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s rejection of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) scores as a “scam” highlights how Wall Street’s hottest investment trend that encompasses some $35 trillion in assets means different things to different people.

The chief executive of Tesla Inc lashed out on Wednesday against S&P Global Inc after the electric car maker was dropped from its flagship ESG index while it added some companies whose activities are harmful to the environment, such as oil and gas producers.

Musk took to Twitter to express his frustration with the move “despite Tesla doing more for the environment than any company ever!” He added that ESG “has been weaponized by phoney social justice warriors.”

S&P Dow Jones Indices senior director Margaret Dorn told Reuters that Tesla had been excluded from the index because its score declined slightly just as the scores of other automakers had improved. Tesla was not excluded because S&P executives decided to kick the company out of the index over a particular issue, she added.

While Tesla’s cars contribute to lower carbon emissions, its ESG score had “fallen behind” in other aspects, such as poor working conditions at its U.S. Fremont factory, claims of racial discrimination and its handling of a U.S. government probe into multiple deaths and injuries linked to its autopilot technology.

Sustainable investing – taking into account ESG factors in portfolio selection – has exploded in recent years, reaching $35.3 trillion by the start of 2020, according to the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance.

Half a dozen investment managers interviewed by Reuters said Musk’s spat with S&P illustrates how confusion still reigns over how many investors and executives view the industry.

Some, like Musk, believe the ratings should reward companies that do the most for the planet and society. Others, including firms like S&P that produce the scores, say they are meant to show how much risk a company’s stock faces from ESG factors.

This explains why some companies that are major contributors to climate change, such as Exxon Corp, are allowed to stay in an ESG index if they can show they are taking actions to reduce that risk.

“Ultimately ESG is a way of identifying and trying to quantify risk. So it’s basically risk mitigation,” said Chi Chan, portfolio manager at Federated Hermes. “Effectively Musk is conflating ESG with sustainability.”

Mark Tinker, chief investment officer at Toscafund Hong Kong, said Musk “rightly pointed out” that societal and corporate governance considerations are being used “for political driven cancelling” and that a company’s contribution to the environment can also “mean what you want it to.”

“The whole thing is very subjective,” Tinker said.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on behalf of the company or Musk.

S&P published the change in its ESG index on April 22. But it was not until May 18, a day after Horn wrote a blog post that explained why Tesla was excluded from the index, that Twitter users started disseminating it, catching Musk’s attention.

Only a tiny fraction of the ESG’s industry’s assets under management – $11.7 billion as of the end of 2020 – are tied to S&P Indexes. S&P’s influential ESG index rival MSCI Inc has so far kept Tesla in its bluechip ESG index.

It was not immediately clear if the exclusion from the S&P ESG index had any impact on Tesla’s shares this week. The stock had already been sliding almost every day since early April, losing close to 40% of its value, amid concerns that China’s COVID-19-related lockdowns will disrupt Tesla’s car production and a potential economic slowdown and raging inflation will dampen demand for its vehicles.

Uncertainty over whether Musk will complete his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter Inc has also weighed on Tesla’s stock.

SCORE BREAKDOWN

S&P declined to provide a breakdown of its ESG score of Tesla, which is compiled based on scores of the company’s various operations and practices.

MSCI also declined to provide a breakdown, but a May 3 copy of its Tesla rating sent to investors and reviewed by Reuters shows how its perceived poor performance on social issues took some of the shine out of the company’s strong green credentials.

Tesla scored 9.1 out of 10 on environmental grounds, against an industry average of 6.5. This made up 30% of its total ESG score. On social issues, however, it ranked 1.4 compared with an average of 3.5, while on governance it scored 5.1 against an average of 3.2.

Andrew Poreda, senior vice president for Sage Advisory Services, an Austin-based investment firm, said as a Tesla investor he understood why the company’s ESG scores were lower than they might have been based solely on the company’s contribution in the fight against climate change.

“You can’t live in a vacuum of just environmental or just social issues, they are all intertwined,” Poreda said.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop in London and Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Richard Pullin)

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By Devik Jain and Noel Randewich

(Reuters) – Wall Street ended lower after a volatile session on Thursday, with Cisco Systems slumping after giving a dismal outlook, while investors fretted about inflation and rising interest rates.

Shares of Cisco slumped 13.7% after the networking gear maker lowered its 2022 revenue growth outlook, taking a hit from its Russia exit and component shortages related to COVID-19 lockdowns in China.

Apple and chipmaker Broadcom declined 2.5% and 4.3%, respectively, and weighed on the S&P 500.

“The reality is that inflation is running hot and interest rates are rising,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Until you get that inflation rate to start slowing, we’re going to have increased volatility, and in our view that continues through throughout most of the summer months.”

Twitter climbed 1.2% after Bloomberg reported that company executives told staff that Elon Musk’s $44-billion deal was proceeding as expected and they would not renegotiate the price.

The S&P consumer staples index fell 2% to its lowest level since December as retail firms face the brunt of rising prices hurting the purchasing power of U.S. consumers.

Kohl’s Corp became the latest retailer to flag a hit from four-decades high inflation as the department store chain cut its full-year profit forecast.

Its shares, however, rebounded over 4% after slumping 11% in the previous session due to dismal results from Target Corp.

The S&P 500 is down about 18% from its record close on Jan. 3 as investors adjust to strong inflation, geopolitical uncertainty stemming from the war in Ukraine and tightening financial conditions with the U.S. Federal Reserve raising rates.

A close of 20% or more below its January record high would confirm the S&P 500 has been in a bear market since hitting that peak, according to a widely used definition.

GRAPHIC: S&P 500 bear markets (https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/egpbkwmlgvq/Pasted%20image%201652990180837.png)

Goldman Sachs strategists predicted a 35% chance of the U.S. economy entering a recession in the next two years, while the Wells Fargo Investment Institute expects a mild U.S. recession at the end of 2022 and early 2023.

The S&P 500 declined 0.58% to end the session at 3,900.79 points.

The Nasdaq declined 0.26% to 11,388.50 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.75% to 31,253.13 points.

GRAPHIC: S&P 500’s busiest trades (https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/akvezranxpr/SPX_by_busiest_trades.png)

Thursday’s mixed performance followed a drop of over 4% in the S&P 500 on Wednesday, the benchmark’s worst one-day loss since June 2020.

The CBOE volatility index, also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, fell to 29.5 points on Thursday, after hitting its highest level since May 12 earlier in the session.

Canada Goose Holdings Inc jumped almost 10% after it forecast upbeat annual earnings, encouraged by strong demand for its luxury parkas and jackets.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 12.7 billion shares, compared with a 13.4 billion average over the last 20 trading days.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.15-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.31-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week highs and 43 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 12 new highs and 326 new lows.

(Reporting by Devik Jain and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Grant McCool)

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By Sabrina Valle

(Reuters) -Exxon Mobil Corp on Thursday said it signed a deal to sell North Texas natural gas properties to producer BKV Corp for $750 million, as part of a wider move to shed unwanted assets.

Exxon, the top U.S. oil producer, set a goal three years ago to sell by last December $15 billion in assets to pay down debt and focus on lower cost oil production. But it has achieved about half its goal as sales stalled during the pandemic.

This year’s rebound in oil and gas prices has brought renewed interest in its properties, Senior Vice President Neil Chapman told analysts in March.

North Texas assets sales include additional payments based on future gas prices, allowing the company to profit from rising fuel costs. The deal is expected to close by June 30.

“We are focused on delivering the most competitive returns to our shareholders by developing opportunities with the lowest cost of supply,” said Liam Mallon, president of Exxon Mobil Upstream Company.

Denver-based BKV is majority owned by Thai energy firm Banpu PCL and is the largest natural gas producer in the Barnett Shale, an area of north Texas where the first shale wells were successfully drilled.

Exxon is offering assets in Asia, Africa and Europe as it as focuses on Guyana, offshore Brazil and the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. It is marketing assets in Iraq, Chad, Nigeria, Canada, and in Arkansas and Ohio.

The company, which suffered a historic $22.4 billion loss in 2020, has used this year’s skyhigh oil prices to pay down debt and increase payouts to shareholders.

Exxon said it had removed the Barnett Shale assets operated by its subsidiaries XTO Energy Inc and Barnett Gathering LLC from its development plan in 2020.

Last year, it took in $2.6 billion from asset sales, up from $1 billion in 2020.

(Reporting by Ruhi Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel, Bernard Orr)

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