Exxonmobil - Wikipedia

This article is about Exxon Mobil Corp. For the company's subsidiaries, see Exxon and Mobil.

Exxon Mobil Corporation, stylized as ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil,[dua] and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon (formerly the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey) and Mobil (formerly the Standard Oil Company of New York). ExxonMobil's primary brands are Exxon, Mobil, Esso, and ExxonMobil Chemical, which produces plastic, synthetic rubber, and other chemical products.[3][4] ExxonMobil is incorporated in New Jersey.[lima]

One of the world's largest companies by revenue, ExxonMobil from 1996 to 2017 varied from the first to sixth largest publicly traded company by market capitalization.[6][7] The company was ranked third globally in the Forbes Global 2000 list in 2016.[8] ExxonMobil was the tenth most profitable company in the Fortune 500 in 2017.[9] As of 2018, the company ranked second in the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[10] Approximately 55.56% of the company's shares are held by institutions. As of March 2019, ExxonMobil's largest shareholders include The Vanguard Group (8.15%), BlackRock (6.61%), and State Street Corporation (4.83%).

ExxonMobil[11] is one of the largest of the world's Big Oil companies.[10] As of 2007, it had daily production of tiga.921 million BOE (barrels of oil equivalent). In 2008, this was approximately 3% of world production, which is less than several of the largest state-owned petroleum companies.[12] When ranked by oil and gas reserves, it is 14th in the world—with less than 1% of the total.[13][14] ExxonMobil's reserves were 20 billion BOE at the end of 2016 and the 2007 rates of production were expected to last more than 14 years.[15] With 37 oil refineries in 21 countries constituting a combined daily refining capacity of 6.3 million barrels (1,000,000 m3), ExxonMobil is the seventh largest refiner in the world,[16][17][18] a title that was also associated with Standard Oil since its incorporation in 1870.[2][needs update]

ExxonMobil had been criticized for its slow response to cleanup efforts after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska,[19] considered to be one of the world's worst oil spills[20] in terms of damage to the environment. ExxonMobil has a history of lobbying for climate change denial and against the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The company has also been the sasaran of accusations of improperly dealing with human rights issues, influence on American foreign policy, and its impact on the future of nations.[21]History[edit]

Chart of the major energy companies dubbed "Big Oil", with financial data from 2005

ExxonMobil was formed in 1999 by the merger of two major oil companies, Exxon and Mobil.[22]1870 to 1911[edit]

Both Exxon and Mobil were descendants of Standard Oil, established by John D. Rockefeller and partners in 1870 as the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. In 1882, it together with its affiliated companies was incorporated as the Standard Oil Trust with Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and Standard Oil Company of New York as its largest companies.[23] The Anglo-American Oil Company was established in the United Kingdom in 1888.[24]In 1890, Standard Oil, together with local ship merchants in Bremen established Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum Gesellschaft (later: Esso A.G.).[25][26]In 1891, a sale branch for the Netherlands and Belgium, American Petroleum Company, was established in Rotterdam.[27]At the same year, a sale branch for Italy, Società Italo Americana pel Petrolio, was established in Venice.[28]

The Standard Oil Trust was dissolved under the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1892; however, it reemerged as the Standard Oil Interests.[23]In 1893, the Chinese and the whole Asian kerosene market was assigned to Standard Oil Company of New York in order to improve trade with the Asian counterparts.[29]In 1898, Standard Oil of New Jersey acquired controlling stake in Imperial Oil of Canada.[25]In 1899, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey became the holding company for the Standard Oil Interests.[23]The anti-monopoly proceedings against the Standard Oil were launched in 1898.[23]The reputation of Standard Oil in the public eye suffered badly after publication of Ida M. Tarbell's classic exposé The History of the Standard Oil Co. in 1904, leading to a growing outcry for the government to take action against the company. By 1911, with public outcry at a climax, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States that Standard Oil must be dissolved and split into 34 companies. Two of these companies were Jersey Standard ("Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey"), which eventually became Exxon, and Socony ("Standard Oil Co. of New York"), which eventually became Mobil.[30]1911 to 1950[edit]

Over the next few decades, Jersey Standard and Socony grew significantly. John Duston Archbold was the first president of Jersey Standard. Archbold was followed by Walter C. Teagle in 1917, who made it the largest oil company in the world.[30]In 1919, Jersey Standard acquired a 50% share in Humble Oil & Refining Co., a Texas oil producer.[23]In 1920, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.[30] In the following years it acquired or established Tropical Oil Company of Colombia (1920), Standard Oil Company of Venezuela (1921), and Creole Petroleum Company of Venezuela (1928).[25]

Henry Clay Folger was head of Socony until 1923, when he was succeeded by Herbert L. Pratt. The growing automotive market inspired the product trademark Mobiloil, registered by Socony in 1920.[citation needed]After dissolution of Standard Oil, Socony had refining and marketing assets but no production activities. For this reason, Socony purchased a 45% interest in Magnolia Petroleum Co., a major refiner, marketer and pipeline transporter, in 1918. In 1925, Magnolia became wholly owned by Socony. In 1926, Socony purchased General Petroleum Corporation of California.[23][30]In 1928, Socony joined the Turkish Petroleum Company (Iraq Petroleum Company).[30]In 1931, Socony merged with Vacuum Oil Company, an industry pioneer dating back to 1866, to form Socony-Vacuum.[23][30][31]

Socony gas station and store in Connecticut, 1916

In the Asia-Pacific region, Jersey Standard has established through its Dutch subsidiary an exploration and production company Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij in 1912. In 1922, it found oil in Indonesia and in 1927, it built a refinery in Sumatra.[32]It had oil production and refineries but no marketing network. Socony-Vacuum had Asian marketing outlets supplied remotely from California. In 1933, Jersey Standard and Socony-Vacuum merged their interests in the Asia-Pacific region into a 50–50 joint venture. Standard Vacuum Oil Company, or "Stanvac," operated in 50 countries, from East Africa to New Zealand, before it was dissolved in 1962.[23]

In 1924, Jersey Standard and General Motors pooled its tetraethyllead-related patents and established the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation.[33]In 1927, Jersey Standard signed a 25-years cooperation agreement with IG Farben for the coal hydrogenation research in the United States.Jersey Standard assumed this cooperation to be beneficial as it believed the United States oil reserves to be exhausted in the near future and that the coal hydrogenation would give an access for producing synthetic fuels. It erected synthetic fuel plants in Bayway, Baton Rouge, and Baytown (unfinished). The interest in hydrogenation evaporated after discovery of the East Texas Oil Field.[34]As a part of the cooperation between Jersey Standard and IG Farben, a joint company, Standard I.G. Company, was established with Jersey Standard having a stake of 80%.IG Farben transferred rights to the hydrogenation process outside of Germany to the joint venture in exchange of $35 million stake of Jersey Standard shares.[35]In 1930, the joint company established Hydro Patents Company to license the hydrogenation process in the United States.[36]The agreement with IG Farben gave to Jersey Standard access to patents related to polyisobutylene which assist Jersey Standard to advance in isobutolene polymerization and to produce the first butyl rubber in 1937.[30][37][38]As the agreement with IG Farben gave to the German company a veto right of licensing chemical industry patents in the United States, including patent for butyl rubber, Jersey Standard was accused of treason by senator Harry S. Truman.[39]In 1941, it opened the first commercial synthetic toluene plant.[30]