ExxonMobil
Profile
ExxonMobil is a fossil fuel company headquartered in Irving, Texas. It was founded in the 1870s as part of the Standard Oil group. Exxon (formerly Standard Oil Company of New Jersey) and Mobil (formerly Standard Oil Company of New York) were spun off in 1911 but merged again in 1999. Exxon is most famous for the massive spill by the Valdez oil tanker in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in 1989 that dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into the Prince William Sound, polluting more than 700 miles of shoreline. Courts fined the company $5 billion but the company’s lawyers got the final payment down to just over $500 million in damages plus an estimated $2 billion in clean-up costs and $1 billion in in civil and criminal charges. Exxon’s refineries in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Baytown, Texas, has also been in the news over a series of explosions in 1989, 1994 and 2021 that killed workers and caused major air pollution.
Crude oil, Oil products, Natural gas, Petrochemicals, Power generation
Violations
| Top 5 Offense Groups (Groups Defined) | Penalty Total | Number of Records |
|---|---|---|
| environment-related offenses | $2,181,386,559 | 431 |
| government-contracting-related offenses | $42,090,000 | 4 |
| employment-related offenses | $2,997,478 | 9 |
| financial offenses | $2,050,000 | 2 |
| safety-related offenses | $1,616,267 | 79 |
(September 29, 2022)
Stories
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- Catch Me If You Can: Exxon's Complicity in Liberian Oil Sector Corruption and how its Washington Lobbyists Fight to Keep Oil Deals Secret (Global Witness, 2018).
- Challenging the Giants: A History of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union by Ray Davidson (OCAW, 1988).
- History of Oil Workers Intl. Union (CIO) by Harvey O’Connor (Oil Workers Intl. Union, 1950).
- In the Wake of the Exxon Valdez: The Story of America's Most Devastating Oil Spill by Art Davidson (Sierra Club Books, 1990).
- Out of the Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound by John Keeble. (HarperCollins, 1991).
- Private Empire: Exxon Mobil and American Power by Steve Coll (Penguin Press, 2012).
- Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science (Union of Concerned Scientists, January 2007).
- The History of the Standard Oil Co. by Ida Tarbell (1904).
- The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Made by Anthony Sampson (Viking Press, 1975).
Activism
Climate Activists Defeat Exxon in Push for Clean Energy
Clifford Krauss and Peter Eavis | New York Times | July 2, 2021
Big Oil was dealt a stunning defeat on Wednesday when shareholders of Exxon Mobil elected at least two board candidates nominated by activist investors who pledged to steer the company toward cleaner energy and away from oil and gas.
USW plans protest at ExxonMobil headquarters
Jacob Dick | Beaumont Enterprise | May 24, 2021
Union workers from the Beaumont ExxonMobil refinery are planning to demonstrate outside the company’s Irving headquarters during its shareholder’s meeting Wednesday in protest of the almost month-long lockout.
Harvard law students ramp up protest against ExxonMobil climate firm
Emily Holden | The Guardian | January 15, 2020
Harvard law students have disrupted a recruiting event for Paul Weiss, the law firm representing ExxonMobil in climate lawsuits, in an escalation the protesters hope will open a new front in climate activism in the legal world.
- American Friends Service Committe: Investigate
- Center for Health, Environment & Justice
- ExxonKnew
- Greenpeace
- Oil Change International/Price of Oil
- Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
- Union of Concerned Scientists
- A Community Voice
- Alliance for Affordable Energy
- Climate Reality New Orleans
- Coalition Against Death Alley
- Healthy Gulf
- Justice and Beyond
- Louisiana Bucket Brigade
- Louisiana League of Conscious Voters
- New Orleans Office Sierra Club
- Poor Peoples Campaign
- SouthWings
- Sunrise Movement, New Orleans
- RISE St. James
- 350 New Orleans
& Lawsuits
Exxon must go to trial over alleged climate crimes, court rules
Chris McGreal | The Guardian | May 24, 2022
The Massachusetts high court on Tuesday ruled that the US’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil, must face a trial over accusations that it lied about the climate crisis and covered up the fossil fuel industry’s role in worsening environmental devastation.
2 injured workers file $10 million lawsuit against ExxonMobil after Baytown refinery explosion
Lucio Vasquez | Houston Public Media | December 27, 2021
Both men suffered head injuries, major orthopedic injury to their spines, and were burned all over their bodies, according to the lawsuit.
Court Approves Exxon Mobil’s $25M Settlement for Pollution in Puerto Rico Drinking Water
Emily Aschcraft | Law Street Media | July 22, 2021
Exxon Mobil Corporation and Esso Standard Oil Company have resolved claims filed against them by Puerto Rico after Judge Silvia L. Carreno-Coll signed a judgment approving the $25 million settlement and consent decree between the parties over allegations that the companies polluted Puerto Rico’s drinking water with gasoline additives.
Legislator threatens to subpoena Exxon after secret video
News Beezer | July 3, 2021
The chairman of a House subcommittee demands that executives from Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell, Chevron, and other major oil and gas companies testify before Congress about the industry’s decades-long effort to launch disinformation campaigns about the climate change.
Exxon agrees to $1 million fine over 2011 Yellowstone River oil spill
Reuters | June 5, 2019
Exxon Mobil Corp has agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty to settle U.S. charges involving a 2011 pipeline rupture that spilled oil into the Yellowstone River in Montana.
Environmental Impacts
Three Exxon refineries top the list of U.S. polluters
Stuart McLaughlin | Reuters | June 1, 2021
Exxon Mobil's U.S. oil refineries pump out far more lung-damaging soot than similarly-sized facilities operated by rivals, according to regulatory documents and a Reuters analysis of pollution test results.
Exxon Valdez oil spill environmental disaster, Prince William Sound, Alaska, United States [1989]
Britannica | March 17 2021
Exxon Valdez oil spill, massive oil spill that occurred on March 24, 1989, in Prince William Sound, an inlet in the Gulf of Alaska, Alaska, U.S.March 17, 2021
Number of oil, chemical, and drilling fluid spills by ExxonMobil from 2005 to 2020*
Statista | 2020
ExxonMobil was responsible for 223 oil, chemical, and drilling fluid spills greater than one barrel in 2020. There have been more than 3,000 spills since 2005, with the number peaking in 2011 at 484. ExxonMobil is one of the most valuable companies when looking at brand value of the leading oil and gas companies worldwide.
A Legacy of Environmental Racism
Sharon Lerner | The Intercept | August 13, 2017
Joseph Gaines was sitting on his porch in the Charlton-Pollard section of Beaumont, Texas, on a recent evening in June, sipping beer and chatting with some of his neighbors about the NBA playoffs, when a loud boom cut through the night and a stream of fire lit up the sky.
PERI Pollution Indexes
Based on United States Environmental Protection Agency data ranking the top 100 worst polluters.
Chad's ExxonMobil Workers Strike, Reducing Crude Output
Emmanuel Tumanjong | Market Watch | June 28, 2021
Crude-oil production by Exxon Mobil Corp. in Chad has been cut for a fourth straight day, owing to protests by workers at the oil giant's unit in the Central African nation, according to reports on Monday by Chad's state television.
Australian workers win ExxonMobil strike after 742 days on picket line
The Guardian | July 29, 2019
On July 11, 2019 oil and gas workers in Victoria, Australia, dismantled their picket line after 742 days, following an agreement ending a long-running dispute with ExxonMobil and its maintenance subcontractor, UGL.
A LOOK BACK: 30 years since Exxon explosion in Baton Rouge
Graham Ulkins | WAFB9 | December 24, 2019
Christmas Eve 1989 is a night many in Baton Rouge will never forget. It was the night a deadly explosion rocked the Exxon refinery, the nation’s second largest petrochemical refinery at the time.
Oil workers go on strike at Exxon Mobil in Nigeria: union
Reuters | May 11, 2017
Nigerian workers at U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp have gone on strike in protest over the sacking of workers, oil labor union officials said on Thursday.
U.S. Jury Faults Mobil Dismissal Of an Employee
Dennis Hevesi | New York Times | November 22, 1990
A Federal jury in Newark found yesterday that Mobil Chemical Company wrongfully dismissed one of its top environmental officials after he refused to perform acts that would have violated Federal and state environmental laws.
Financials
Note: Most recent list is not always the most complete list.
- Exxon Mobil subsidiaries (via U.S. SEC 2020)
- Exxon Mobil subsidiaries (via U.S. SEC 2018)
- Exxon Mobil subsidiaries (via U.S. SEC 2017)
Croctail Subsidiary Tool using the CorpWatch API - This API extracts the subsidiary relationship information from Exhibit 21 of companies' 10-K filings with the US SEC.
- CIK numbers link to SEC database (EDGAR)
- Section 21 links to SEC list of companies.
- Exxon Mobil Croctail Profile
Click here for the latest list.
Political Influence
Open Secrets - Tracks corporate lobbying of US politicians.
OpenSecrets.org Profile of Exxon Mobil
Import & Export Data
ImportYeti - Shipping Tracking Tool - Bill of ladings are public information that are too cost prohibitive, challenging to obtain and difficult to use for the average joe. ImportYeti's goal is to solve that problem.
- ImportYeti Profile of ExxonMobil
& Evasion
ExxonMobil Discovers That Amended Tax Returns Are Dangerous
Gray Reed, David Gair, & Charles Sartain | JD Supra | February 3, 2021
In Exxon Mobil Corp. v. United States of America, from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ExxonMobil learned the hard way that filing amended tax returns can be very costly.
ExxonMobil spent $10m fighting Australian Tax Office
Christopher Knaus | The Guardian | July 2, 2018
Multinational oil giant ExxonMobil has spent $10m fighting Australian tax authorities, including in disputes against the petroleum resources rent tax.
ExxonMobil paid no tax on $18 billion revenue, unions allege
Noel Towell | Sydney Morning Herald | December 3, 2017
Energy giant ExxonMobil has not paid a cent in corporate income tax in Australia in at least two years, despite reaping more than $18 billion from the nation's natural resources, according to three of the company's workplace unions.
ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell paid no tax in Australia for 2016
Sonali Paul | Reuters | December 7, 2017
Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N and Chevron Corp CVX.N paid no tax in Australia in the 2016 financial year, the third year in a row, despite reporting billions of dollars in income from operations in the country, a report from the tax office showed on Thursday
Major Projects
ExxonMobil ramps back up construction on $500M expansion after pause
Kriten Mosbrucker | The Advocate | October 21, 2021
After hitting the pause button during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, ExxonMobil is back on track to open its $500 million polyolefin expansion by the end of 2022.
ExxonMobil mulls $334 million chemical facility expansion in Baton Rouge, seeks incentives
Kristen Mosbrucker | The Advocate | March 30, 2021
ExxonMobil is considering investing up to $334 million at its Baton Rouge Chemical plant just north of downtown and is seeking economic incentives for the project.
Projects Continued
Exxon to invest $240 million in Louisiana refinery -Governor
Reuters | June 9, 2021
Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) plans to invest $240 million to expand the crude slate and improve pollution control at its 502,500 barrel-per-day refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said the state’s governor on Wednesday.
Exxon, Sabic select site for new Texas cracker; Nova Chemicals buys Louisiana plant
Reuters | April 21, 2017
ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabia's Sabic have selected a site in San Patricio County-- next to Corpus Christi, Texas-- for their joint 1.8 million mt/year (mtpa) Gulf Coast Growth Ventures (GCGV) ethylene facility project, the companies announced April 19.
Procurement
ExxonMobil contracts with the U.S. federal Government (via USA Spending)