A top Exxon Mobil Corp official confirmed a multi-billion dollar plan under consideration to double U.S. light crude oil refining capacity along the U.S. Gulf Coast to take advantage of the nation’s growing shale oil production.

Exxon’s proposed project, which has not received a final investment decision, would be the first major expansion of gasoline and motor fuels production in the nation in six years.

Exxon’s Beaumont, Texas refinery could become the nation’s largest by capacity when the work is complete in the next decade.

Exxon expects to add a crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 362,300 barrel per day (bpd) Beaumont refinery and boost refining capacity at plants in Baytown, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Senior Vice President Jack Williams said in a presentation to Wall Street analysts last week.

“It’s really a full Gulf Coast upgrade,” Williams said, according to a transcript of the meeting confirmed on Monday by Exxon. The project has been under consideration for several years because of the increase in output from Texas and North Dakota shale fields. “We know this is going to be a long-term resource,” he said. [read more]