ExxonMobil

Exxon Mobil Corporation is an American company, one of the largest oil companies in the world, one of the largest corporations in the world by market capitalization ($330 billion as of February 2019).

The company is headquartered in Irving, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. The main reserves of oil are located in Asia and the United States, natural gas — in the United States, Australia, Asia and Europe.

The current company was created in 1999 as a result of the merger of the largest American oil companies Exxon and Mobil.

Both companies were heirs to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company, founded in 1870. In less than a decade, it had almost completely taken control of U.S. refining, with Standard Oil accounting for $35 million in oil refining revenue in 1878. In 1882, Standard Oil was transformed into a trust of 30 companies that controlled 80 percent of the refineries and 90 percent of the oil pipelines in the United States, and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey was created as the basis of the trust (according to the registration documents, Exxon Mobil Corporation is its direct successor). In 1888, the first overseas subsidiary, the Anglo-American Oil Company (later Esso Petroleum Company), was established. In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed, primarily against Standard Oil, and after years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1911 to split Standard Oil into 34 separate companies, one of which continued to be called the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (abbreviated as Jersey Standard). This company took over a significant part of Standard Oil's refining capacity, but it was left without sources of crude oil, so in 1919 it bought the Texas company Humble Oil, and in the 1920s began to develop towards Latin America, primarily Venezuela. In 1928, Standard Oil formed the Creole Petroleum Corporation, which produced more than 450,000 barrels of oil per day in the 1940s. In 1927, Jersey Standard began cooperation with the German company IG Farben, together they conducted research in the field of obtaining synthetic fuels by hydrogenation of coal. This technology has received very limited application, much more important for the American company was the obtaining of patent rights from a German partner for the production of synthetic rubber from petroleum. Production of butyl rubber in the United States began in 1937.

In 1931, two other companies within the trust, the Standard Oil Company of New York (SOCONY) and the Vacuum Oil Company, merged under the name Socony-Vacuum Corporation. The Vacuum Oil Company was founded in 1866 to commercialize the vacuum method of refining oil for the purpose of producing lubricants; the company soon came under the control of Standard Oil, which began selling these lubricants worldwide under the Mobil brand. In 1933, Exxon and Mobil formed a joint venture, the Standard-Vacuum Oil Co., or Stanvac for short, which combined their assets in the Far East.

Although the company lost 32 tankers during World War II and destroyed a number of refineries in Europe and Asia (including the largest plant in France, in the city of Gravanchon, France). Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon), blown up by retreating French troops), this was more than compensated for by military orders. After the end of World War II, it became obvious that the demand for petroleum products would grow, and the reserves available in the United States would not be enough to meet this growth, so the former components of Standard Oil began to increase their presence in the Middle East. U.S. companies began their involvement in oil production in the region in the 1920s by establishing the Turkish Petroleum Company (with fields in present-day Iraq). In 1946, Jersey Standard and Socony-Vacuum acquired 20% and 10% respectively in the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco); the main members of the consortium were Standard Oil Company (California) and Texas Company, which later became Chevron and Texaco. In 1954, all of these companies became members of a consortium to extract oil in Iran. In 1966, when the Socony-Vacuum Corporation was renamed Mobil Oil Corporation, 43% of its oil production came from the Middle East (primarily Saudi Arabia), the company's turnover reached $6.5 billion, and it was the leader in the supply of oil and gas to the fastest-growing markets, Japan and Germany.

In 1973, OPEC countries imposed an embargo on oil supplies to the United States for 6 months and began annexing areas owned by American companies. Although this made the work of Western oil companies more difficult, it led to a rapid increase in the price of oil, Mobil's turnover tripled from 1973 to 1977 (to $32 billion), profits in 1974 reached a record level; it also gave rise to a wave of criticism against the company (including hearings in the US Congress) on the permissibility of doing business by any means. Mobil's successful adaptation to the new environment was largely due to the fact that the company spent a lot of money and time to establish good relations with the rulers of Saudi Arabia. In the 1980s, however, the price of oil began to fall, and relations with Saudi Arabia became increasingly unfavorable. The search for other sources of raw materials led to the purchase of the Superior Oil Company in 1984 (for $5.7 billion); the company, however, was saddled with debt, which, combined with declining oil demand growth, required Mobil to cut costs substantially. In the mid-1980s, the number of refineries was reduced, and by 1988 a network of gas stations in 20 states was sold (since gas stations in the 14 northeastern states where Mobil continued to operate accounted for 88 percent of retail sales), the number of employees was reduced by 20 percent. The economic downturn of the early 1990s required the company to further optimize its operations: it sold low-margin wells in Texas and non-core assets purchased in the 1970s, such as coal mines in Wyoming, while strengthening its position in the most profitable regions: Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the Asia-Pacific region. The company's position improved significantly by the mid-1990s with the rise in the price of natural gas, which accounted for a third of the company's revenue and half of its hydrocarbon reserves thanks to fields in Indonesia. The most promising project of the second half of the 1990s was a 30 percent stake in the Ras Lafan field off the coast of Qatar.

Jersey Standard changed its name to Exxon in 1972. The oil embargo of 1973 led to a sharp increase in revenues (from $20 billion in 1972 to $100 billion in 1980), and the fall in the price of oil from 1981 onwards necessitated an optimization of the company's structure. In 1986, three main divisions were formed: Exxon Company, International (oil production outside North America), Exxon Company, U.S.A. (USA) and Imperial Oil Limited (Canada). Since World War II, the company held the status of the largest oil company in the world, but in 1989 it lost it to Royal Dutch Shell, one of the reasons for this was the sinking of the Exxon Valdez tanker off the coast of Alaska. The liquidation of the oil spill and compensation for damage to the victims cost the company several billion dollars over several years. In 1990, the headquarters was moved from Rockefeller Center in New York City to Irving, Texas.

Since the late 1970s, scientists working with ExxonMobil have accurately predicted global warming. However, ExxonMobil decided to act in its own self-interest: it curtailed its research program and diverted resources to raising doubts among the public about the reality of global warming and the impact of fossil fuels on it.

The Asian financial crisis of 1997 led to a decline in oil demand, and OPEC member countries failed to agree on production cuts, and in 1998 the price of oil fell to $11 per barrel, the lowest level in the history of oil production, when inflation is taken into account. So in 1998, Exxon and Mobil signed a $73.7 billion merger agreement to form a new company, ExxonMobil Corporation, the largest on the planet. The merger was completed on November 30, 1999. This deal reduced the costs of both companies by $2.8 billion per year. The combined company was headed by Lee Raymond, who had been the head of Exxon since 1993.

After Lee Raymond retired in 2006, Rex Tillerson, who had worked at Exxon since 1975, was elected chairman of the board. He resigned at the end of 2016 in connection with his appointment as US Secretary of State in the administration of Donald Trump. During his tenure, ExxonMobil almost completely sold off the gas station chain, and the Exxon and Mobil brands continued to be used by the new owners on a franchise basis. The largest acquisition during this time was natural gas producer XTO Energy in 2010 for $31 billion. In 2011, cooperation with Rosneft began on projects on the Black Sea shelf and in Siberia. In 2012, ExxonMobil confirmed its intention to start developing fields in Kurdistan, Iraq. In 2013, Hong Kong-based Castle Peak was sold for $3.4 billion to CLP Holdings. In 2014, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes awarded ExxonMobil $1.6 billion in compensation for the expropriation of assets by the Venezuelan government in 2007.

On October 11, 2023, ExxonMobil announced the acquisition of another American company, Pioneer Natural Resources, in a deal worth $59.5 billion.

Activities

Proved hydrocarbon reserves at the end of 2021 were 18.536 billion barrels of oil equivalent, including 7.436 billion barrels of oil (12.174 billion barrels including gas condensate, bitumen and synthetic oil), and 1.081 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Daily oil and gas production in 2021 amounted to 3.712 million barrels, of which 2.289 million barrels of oil and 241.7 million cubic meters of natural gas. The cost of producing 1 barrel of oil averaged $11, the lowest being $4 in Asia, $5 in Australia, $9 in the United States, $19 in Africa, $22 in Canada and Latin America, and $32 in Europe.

ExxonMobil has a stake in 19 refineries in 13 countries with a total capacity of 4.57 million barrels per day. Five of them are in the United States (2 in Texas, one each in Illinois, Louisiana and Montana, 1.77 million barrels per day), 3 in Canada (428 thousand barrels per day), 8 in Europe (2 in France, as well as in Belgium, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany, 1.35 million barrels per day), 4 in Asia (Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and China). 1.03 million barrels per day).

The main chemical plants are: Baton Rouge (Louisiana), Bay Town, Beaumont, Corpus Christi and Mont Bellevier (Texas), Sarnia (Ontario, 69.6%), Antwerp (Belgium), Fife (Great Britain, 50%), Gravanchon (France), Merhout (Belgium), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Jubail and Yanbu el-Bahr (Saudi Arabia, 50% each), Fujian (China, 25%), Singapore, Siracha (Thailand, 66%). The total annual capacity is 11.9 million tonnes of ethylene, 11.2 million tonnes of polyethylene, 2.8 million tonnes of polypropylene, and 4.1 million tonnes of paraxylene.

The retail network includes 22,500 gas stations operating under the Exxon, Mobil and Esso brands, including 11,300 in the United States, 2,389 in Canada, 6,031 in Europe, 1,893 in the Asia-Pacific region, 489 in Latin America and 428 in the Middle East. Of this number, less than a thousand are owned by the company, the rest work on a franchise basis. Income from them is in the form of royalties for the use of trademarks. Sales of petroleum products averaged 5.16 million barrels in 2021, of which 2.26 million barrels were in the United States.

Main divisions:

Oil and gas production — revenue $21.8 billion, net profit $15.8 billion;
Oil refining and sales — revenue $218 billion, net profit $2.1 billion;
Chemical industry — revenue $36.8 billion, net profit $7.8 billion;
Corporate center and finance – net loss of $2.6 billion.
Geographical distribution of the company's revenue in 2021:

$104.2 billion;
Canada — $22.2 billion;
Singapore — $15.0 billion;
Great Britain — $14.8 billion;
France — $13.2 billion;
Italy — $10.1 billion;
Belgium — $9.2 billion;
Australia — $7.6 billion