ExxonMobil facts for kids
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Floating cube at ExxonMobil headquarters near Spring, Texas
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Formerly
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| Traded as | |
| ISIN | ISIN: [https://isin.toolforge.org/?language=en&isin=US30231G1022 US30231G1022] |
| Industry | Energy: Oil and gas |
| Predecessor |
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| Founded | January 1, 2000 |
| Founders | Lucio Noto Lee Raymond |
| Headquarters | Unincorporated Harris County near Spring, Texas, U.S. |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Darren Woods (Chairman & CEO) |
| Products |
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| Brands |
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| Revenue |  US$344.6 billion (2023) |
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Operating income
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US$52.78 billion (2023) |
| US$36.01 billion (2023) |
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| Total assets |  US$376.3 billion (2023) |
| Total equity | US$204.8 billion (2023) |
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Number of employees
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61,500 (2023) |
| Parent | Standard Oil (1882–1911) |
| Subsidiaries |
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ExxonMobil Corporation (/ˌɛksɒnˈmoʊbəl/ EKS-on-MOH-bəl; commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation and the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. The company, which took its present name in 1999 per the merger of Exxon and Mobil, is vertically integrated across the entire oil and gas industry, and within it is also a chemicals division which produces plastic, synthetic rubber, and other chemical products. ExxonMobil is headquartered near the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, though officially incorporated in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the largest United States-based oil and gas producing company. ExxonMobil is also the eighth largest company in the world by revenue and the third largest in the US.
The company’s history traces its earliest roots to 1866, with the formation of the Vacuum Oil Company, itself acquired by Standard Oil in 1879. The company that is today known as ExxonMobil grew out of the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), the corporate entity which effectively controlled all of Standard Oil prior to its breakup. Jersey Standard grew alongside and with extensive partnership another Standard Oil descendant and its future merger partner, the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony), both of which grew bigger by merging with various third companies like Humble Oil (which merged with Jersey Standard) and Vacuum Oil (merged with Socony). Both companies underwent rebranding in the 1960s and early 1970s, and by the time of the 1999 merger, Jersey Standard had been known as Exxon, and Socony known as Mobil. The merger agreement between Exxon and Mobil stipulated that Exxon would buy Mobil and rebrand as ExxonMobil, with Mobil's CEO becoming the vice-chairman of the company. The archival records of the company and its predecessors dating back to the 1970s are held by The Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin.
ExxonMobil is one of the world's largest and most powerful companies. Since its merger, the company has varied from the first to tenth largest publicly traded company by revenue, and has one of the largest market capitalizations out of any company. As of 2023, in the most recent rankings released in the Fortune 500, ExxonMobil was ranked third, and twelfth on the Fortune Global 500. It is the largest investor-owned oil company in the world, the largest oil company headquartered in the Western world, and the largest of the Big Oil companies in both production and market value. Its reserves were 20 billion BOE at the end of 2016 and the 2007 rates of production were expected to last more than 14 years. With 21 oil refineries constituting a combined daily refining capacity of 4.9 million barrels (780,000 m3), ExxonMobil is the second largest oil refiner in the world, trailing only Sinopec. Approximately 55.56% of the company's shares are held by institutions, the largest of which as of 2019 were The Vanguard Group (8.15%), BlackRock (6.61%), and State Street Corporation (4.83%).
ExxonMobil has been widely criticized, mostly for environmental incidents and its history of climate change denial against the scientific consensus that fossil fuels significantly contribute to global warming. The company is responsible for many oil spills, the largest and most notable of which was the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and itself considered to be one of the world's worst oil spills in terms of damage to the environment. The company has also been the target of accusations of human rights violations, excessive influence on America's foreign policy, and its impact on various societies across the world.
Contents
History
ExxonMobil traces its roots to Vacuum Oil Company, founded in 1866. Vacuum Oil later was acquired by Standard Oil in 1879, divested from Standard in 1911 with its breakup, and merged by the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony), later known as Mobil, in 1931. After the 1911 breakup, Standard Oil continued to exist through its New Jersey subsidiary, sometimes shortened to Jersey Standard, and retained the Standard Oil name in much of the eastern United States. Jersey Standard grew by acquiring Humble Oil in the 1930s and became the dominant oil company on the world stage. The company's lack of ownership over the Standard Oil name across the United States, however, prompted a name change to unify all of its brands under one name, choosing to name itself Exxon in 1972 over continuing to use three distinct brands of Esso, Enco, and Humble.
In 1998, the two companies agreed to merge and form ExxonMobil, with the deal closing on November 30, 1999. The two companies cited lower oil prices and a better ability to compete with other state-owned oil companies outside of the United States like Pemex and Aramco. With the deal, the two companies practically merged, with the new company's name containing both of the trade names of its immediate predecessors. However, the structure of the merger provided that Exxon was the surviving company and bought Mobil, rather than a new company being created.
Operations
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government-owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
ExxonMobil is vertically integrated into a number of global operating divisions. These divisions are grouped into three categories for reference purposes, though the company also has several standalone divisions, such as Coal & Minerals. It also owns hundreds of smaller subsidiaries such as XTO Energy and SeaRiver Maritime. ExxonMobil also has a majority ownership stake in Imperial Oil.
- Upstream (oil exploration, extraction, shipping, and wholesale operations)
- Product Solutions (downstream, chemical)
- Low Carbon Solutions
Upstream
The upstream division makes up the majority of ExxonMobil's revenue, accounting for approximately 70% of it. In 2021, ExxonMobil had about 30 billion barrels of oil and oil equivalents, as well as 38.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
In the United States, ExxonMobil's petroleum exploration and production activities are concentrated in the Permian Basin, Bakken Formation, Woodford Shale, Caney Shale, and the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, ExxonMobil has several gas developments in the regions of Marcellus Shale, Utica Shale, Haynesville Shale, Barnett Shale, and Fayetteville Shale. All natural gas activities are conducted by its subsidiary, XTO Energy. As of December 31, 2014, ExxonMobil owned 14.6 million acres (59,000 km2) in the United States, of which 1.7 million acres (6,900 km2) were offshore, 1.5 million acres (6,100 km2) of which were in the Gulf of Mexico. In California, it has a joint venture called Aera Energy LLC with Shell Oil. In Canada, the company holds 5.4 million acres (22,000 km2), including 1 million acres (4,000 km2) offshore and 0.7 million acres (2,800 km2) of the Kearl Oil Sands Project.
In Argentina, ExxonMobil holds 0.9 million acres (3,600 km2) and 4.9 million acres (20,000 km2) in Germany. In the Netherlands ExxonMobil owns 1.5 million acres (6,100 km2), in Norway it owns 0.4 million acres (1,600 km2) offshore, and the United Kingdom 0.6 million acres (2,400 km2) offshore. In Africa, upstream operations are concentrated in Angola, where it owns 0.4 million acres (1,600 km2) offshore, Chad where it owns 46,000 acres (19,000 ha), Equatorial Guinea, where it owns 0.1 million acres (400 km2) offshore, and Nigeria, where it owns 0.8 million acres (3,200 km2) offshore. In addition, ExxonMobil plans to start exploration activities off the coast of Liberia and the Ivory Coast. In the past, ExxonMobil had exploration activities in Madagascar, however these operations were ended due to unsatisfactory results.
In Asia, it holds 9,000 acres (3,600 ha) in Azerbaijan, 1.7 million acres (6,900 km2) in Indonesia, of which 1.3 million acres (5,300 km2) are offshore, 0.7 million acres (2,800 km2) in Iraq, 0.3 million acres (1,200 km2) in Kazakhstan, 0.2 million acres (810 km2) in Malaysia, 65,000 acres (26,000 ha) in Qatar, 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) in Yemen, 21,000 acres (8,500 ha) in Thailand, and 81,000 acres (33,000 ha) in the United Arab Emirates.
Russia operations
Until the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, ExxonMobil held 85,000 acres (34,000 ha) in the Sakhalin-I project through its subsidiary Exxon Neftegas. Together with Rosneft, it has developed 63.6 million acres (257,000 km2) in Russia, including the East-Prinovozemelsky field. In Australia, ExxonMobil held 1.7 million acres (6,900 km2), including 1.6 million acres (6,500 km2) offshore. It also operates the Longford Gas Conditioning Plant, and participates in the development of Gorgon LNG project. In Papua New Guinea, it holds 1.1 million acres (4,500 km2), including the PNG Gas project. After Russia's 2022 invasion began, though, ExxonMobil announced it was fully pulling out of both Russia and Sakhalin-I, and launched a lawsuit against Russia's federal government on August 30.
Product Solutions
ExxonMobil formed its Product Solutions division in 2022, combining its previously separate Downstream and Chemical divisions into a single company.
Downstream and Retail
ExxonMobil markets products around the world under the brands of Exxon, Mobil, and Esso. Mobil is ExxonMobil's primary retail gasoline brand in California, Florida, New York, New England, the Great Lakes, and the Midwest. Exxon is the primary brand in the rest of the United States, with the highest concentration of retail outlets located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas (shared with Mobil), and in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states. ExxonMobil has stations in 46 states, just behind Shell USA and ahead of Phillips 66, lacking a presence only in Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, and Kansas.
Outside of the United States, Esso and Mobil are primarily used, with Esso operating in 14 countries and Mobil operating in 29 countries and regions.
In Japan, ExxonMobil had a 22% stake in TonenGeneral Sekiyu K.K., a refining company that merged into Eneos in 2017.
ExxonMobil's primary retail brands worldwide are Exxon, Esso, Mobil, with the former being used exclusively in the United States and the latter two being used in most other countries where ExxonMobil operates. Esso is the only one of its brands not used widely in the United States. Since 2008, Mobil is the only brand for the company lubricants. Since 2018, ExxonMobil has operated a loyalty program, ExxonMobil Rewards+, where customers earn rewards points when filling up at its stations in the United States and later the United Kingdom.
Chemicals
ExxonMobil Chemical is a petrochemical company that was created by merging Exxon's and Mobil's chemical industries in 1999. Its principal products include basic olefins and aromatics, ethylene glycol, polyethylene, and polypropylene along with speciality lines such as elastomers, plasticizers, solvents, process fluids, oxo alcohols and adhesive resins. The company also produces synthetic lubricant base stocks as well as lubricant additives, propylene packaging films and catalysts. ExxonMobil is the largest producer of butyl rubber. Infineum, a joint venture with Shell plc, is manufacturing and marketing crankcase lubricant additives, fuel additives, and specialty lubricant additives, as well as automatic transmission fluids, gear oils, and industrial oils.
Sponsorships
Mobil 1, a brand of synthetic motor oil, is a major sponsor of multiple racing teams and as the official motor oil of NASCAR since 2003. ExxonMobil is currently in partnerships with Oracle Red Bull Racing in Formula One and Kalitta Motorsports.
Refineries
ExxonMobil operates 21 refineries worldwide, and the company claims 80% of its refining capacity is integrated with chemical or lube basestocks. ExxonMobil's largest refinery overall is its Beaumont Refinery and its second largest in the United States is its Baytown Refinery, located in Baytown, Texas. Its second largest refinery overall is its Jurong Island facility in Singapore. ExxonMobil's global average refining capacity was 4.6 million barrels per day, with the United States producing a plurality of the company's refining capacity at about 1.77 million barrels per day. ExxonMobil's corporate website claims it refines almost 5 million barrels per day.
ExxonMobil was one of few U.S. refiners to expand capacity by a significant margin following an industry downturn suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company completed a 250,000 barrels per day expansion at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery in early 2023.
Low Carbon Solutions
Officially formed with ExxonMobil's 2022 corporate restructuring, and currently led by former General Motors president Dan Ammann, Low Carbon Solutions is the company's alternative energy division. The division says it will lower emissions in hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as heavy industry, commercial transportation, and power generation using a combination of lower-emission fuels, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage. Low Carbon Solutions conducts research on clean energy technologies, including algae biofuels, biodiesel made from agricultural waste, carbonate fuel cells, and refining crude oil into plastic by using a membrane and osmosis instead of heat. The company speculated in April 2023 that pending good economic conditions, the low-carbon solutions business could eclipse the value of its oil and gas operations.
The company is in the process of designing its inaugural large-scale plant dedicated to producing low-carbon hydrogen, situated within its refining and petrochemical complex in Baytown, Texas. This project is set to become the world's largest low-carbon hydrogen project.
Carbon capture and storage
ExxonMobil publicly announced it would be investing $15 billion in what it deemed a "lower carbon future", and claims to be the world leader in carbon capture and storage (CCS). The company additionally plans that its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions will be carbon neutral by 2050. ExxonMobil additionally acquired biofuel company Biojet AS in 2022, and its Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil is moving ahead with plans to produce a renewable diesel biofuel. In July 2023, Exxon agreed to acquire Denbury Resources for $4.9 billion to further its low-carbon efforts.
Low-carbon energy projects
Exxon is working on low-carbon energy projects, focusing on basic research in five to ten key areas. This work spends a fraction of the $1 billion a year Exxon spends on research worldwide and the $8 billion it has spent since 2000 researching, developing and deploying low-carbon technologies Projects include: algae biofuels, biodiesel from agricultural waste, molten carbonate fuel cells, and new ways to manufacture plastic that produce less carbon dioxide.
Corporate affairs
| Company | Revenue (USD) | Profit (USD) | Brands |
|---|---|---|---|
| ExxonMobil | $286 billion | $23 billion | Mobil Esso Imperial Oil |
| Shell plc | $273 billion | $20 billion | Jiffy Lube Pennzoil |
| TotalEnergies | $185 billion | $16 billion | Elf Aquitaine SunPower |
| BP | $164 billion | $7.6 billion | Amoco Aral AG |
| Chevron | $163 billion | $16 billion | Texaco Caltex Havoline |
| Marathon | $141 billion | $10 billion | ARCO |
| Phillips 66 | $115 billion | $1.3 billion | 76 Conoco JET |
| Valero | $108 billion | $0.9 billion | N/A |
| Eni | $77 billion | $5.8 billion | N/A |
| ConocoPhillips | $48.3 billion | $8.1 billion | N/A |
Business trends
According to Fortune Global 500, ExxonMobil was the second largest company, second largest publicly held corporation, and the largest oil company in the United States by 2017 revenue. For the fiscal year 2020, ExxonMobil reported a loss of US$22.4 billion, with an annual revenue of US$181.5 billion, a decline of 31.5% over the previous fiscal cycle.
The key trends of ExxonMobil are (as at the financial year ending December 31):
| Year | Revenue (US$ bn) |
Net income/ loss (US$ bn) |
Total assets (US$ bn) |
Price per share (US$) |
Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 477 | 45.2 | 228 | 82.68 | 79,900 |
| 2009 | 310 | 19.2 | 233 | 70.95 | 80,700 |
| 2010 | 383 | 30.4 | 302 | 64.99 | 83,600 |
| 2011 | 486 | 41,0 | 331 | 79.71 | 82,100 |
| 2012 | 480 | 44.8 | 333 | 86.53 | 76,900 |
| 2013 | 438 | 32.5 | 346 | 90.50 | 75,000 |
| 2014 | 411 | 32.5 | 349 | 97.27 | 75,300 |
| 2015 | 249 | 16.1 | 336 | 82.82 | 73,500 |
| 2016 | 208 | 7.8 | 330 | 86.22 | 71,100 |
| 2017 | 244 | 19.7 | 348 | 81.86 | 69,600 |
| 2018 | 290 | 20.8 | 346 | 79.96 | 71,000 |
| 2019 | 264 | 14.3 | 362 | 73.73 | 74,900 |
| 2020 | 181 | –22.4 | 332 | 44.52 | 72,000 |
| 2021 | 285 | 23.0 | 338 | 57.96 | 63,000 |
| 2022 | 413 | 55.7 | 369 | 110.30 | 62,300 |
| 2023 | 344 | 36.0 | 376 | 61,500 |
Headquarters and offices
ExxonMobil's headquarters are located in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston.
The company decided to consolidate its Houston operations into one new campus located in northern Harris County and vacate its offices on 800 Bell St. which it had occupied since 1963. The new operation complex includes twenty office buildings totaling 3,000,000 square feet (280,000 m2), a wellness center, laboratory, and three parking garages. It is designed to house nearly 10,000 employees.
Board of directors
The current chairman of the board and CEO of ExxonMobil Corp. is Darren W. Woods. Woods was elected chairman of the board and CEO effective January 1, 2017, after the retirement of former chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson. Before his election as chairman and CEO, Woods was elected president of ExxonMobil and a member of the board of directors in 2016.
As of July 28, 2021[update], the current ExxonMobil board members are:
- Michael J. Angelakis, chair and chief executive officer of Atairos Group Inc.
- Susan Avery, president emerita of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Angela Braly, former president and CEO of WellPoint (now Anthem)
- Ursula Burns, former chair and CEO of Xerox
- Gregory J. Goff, former executive vice chair, Marathon Petroleum
- Kaisa H. Hietala, board professional
- Joseph L. Hooley, former chair, president and CEO of State Street
- Steven A. Kandarian, chair, president and CEO of MetLife
- Alexander A. Karsner, senior strategist at X Development
- Jeffrey W. Ubben, Founder, Portfolio Manager, and Managing Partner, Inclusive Capital Partners, L.P.
- Darren W. Woods, chair of the board and CEO, ExxonMobil Corporation
Hooley is presently the lead independent director, having succeeded former Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier upon his retirement in May 2022. Three of the directors nominated at the last Annual General Meeting were nominated after a proxy battle against hedge fund Engine No.1 and were nominated against the suggestion of the board.
Key executives
ExxonMobil's key executives are:
- Darren Woods, chairman and CEO
- Neil Chapman, Senior Vice President
- Kathryn Mikells, CFO and Senior Vice President
- Jack Williams, Senior Vice President
- James Spellings, General Tax Counsel and Vice President
See also
In Spanish: ExxonMobil para niños
- Esso
- History of ExxonMobil
- Litigation involving ExxonMobil:
- Connecticut v. ExxonMobil
- Exxon Corp. v Exxon Insurance Consultants International Ltd
- Kivalina v. ExxonMobil
- People of the State of New York v. ExxonMobil
