Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), the world's largest publicly traded oil producer, sought to reassure anxious investors on Wednesday about its growth potential, highlighting both short- and long-term projects executives said should continue to help fund the 106-year-old dividend.

"Our job is to compete and succeed in any market," Chief Executive Darren Woods said at the company's annual analyst day in New York.

"We are constantly working to improve projects in the portfolio," Woods said at his first meeting with analysts since he became CEO in January when predecessor Rex Tillerson left to become U.S. secretary of state.

Woods tried to assuage Wall Street analysts concerned Exxon has lagged Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and other peers in its ability to replace oil and gas reserves it needs for future profitability.

Exxon touted short-term projects in North Dakota and Texas, while also pointing to larger endeavors in Russia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Angola and Canada slated to come online later this year.

Combined, all growth projects should boost the company's production to between 4 million and 4.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2020, Exxon said.

Exxon pumped 4.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2016.

Of 25 Wall Street analysts tracking Exxon, only five recommend buying its shares, less than a third of the 17 who advise buying Chevron's shares, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Exxon and other oil majors have been slow to recover from a two-year price war with OPEC members, a skirmish that eroded profitability. Exxon does not hedge its oil production, so it is particularly sensitive to price swings.

Last year, for the second year in a row, Texas-based Exxon failed to replace 100 per cent of its oil and gas reserves with new projects.

Shares of Exxon rose 1.9 per cent to US$82.87 in morning trading, in line with the broader market.

The company repeated its January spending outlook, in which it said it would spend US$22 billion this year, up about 16 per cent from 2016.

Woods said that spending should increase to about US$25 billion by the end of the decade.

"We are confident in our ability to create significant shareholder value over the long-term," he said.

REFINING

Woods defended Exxon's integrated business model, which twins oil exploration and production with refining. Refining profits typically rise when the price of oil falls, which has helped lift Exxon's results in the past year.

While some investors have pushed oil companies to spin off refining units to boost shareholder returns, Woods said Exxon's profitability would suffer should that occur.

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts," Woods said, noting that he was quoting the Greek philosopher Aristotle.