Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
operated in 50 countries, from East Africa to New Zealand, before it was dissolved in
1962.
Mobil Chemical Company was established in 1960. As of 1999, its principal products
included basic olefins and aromatics, ethylene glycol and polyethylene. The company
produced synthetic lubricant base stocks as well as lubricant additives, propylene
packaging films and catalysts. Exxon Chemical Company (first named Enjay Chemicals)
became a worldwide organization in 1965 and in 1999 was a major producer and
marketer of olefins, aromatics, polyethylene and polypropylene along with specialty lines
such as elastomers, plasticizers, solvents, process fluids, oxo alcohols and adhesive
resins. The company was an industry leader in metallocene catalyst technology to make
unique polymers with improved performance.
In 1955, Socony-Vacuum became Socony Mobil Oil Co. and in 1966 simply Mobil Oil
Corp. A decade later, the newly incorporated Mobil Corporation absorbed Mobil Oil as a
wholly owned subsidiary. Jersey Standard changed its name to Exxon Corporation in
1972 and established Exxon as a trademark throughout the United States. In other parts of
the world, Exxon and its affiliated companies continued to use its Esso trademark.
On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef in Prince William
Sound, Alaska and spilled more than 11 million gallons (42,000 m) of crude oil. The
Exxon Valdez oil spill was the second largest in U.S. history, and in the aftermath of the
Exxon Valdez incident, the U.S. Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. The
company is still appealing a $2.5 billion USD punitive ruling, and has not paid any
damages yet.
In 1998, Exxon and Mobil signed a US$73.7 billion definitive agreement to merge and
form a new company called ExxonMobil Corporation, the largest company on the planet.
After shareholder and regulatory approvals, the merger was completed on November 30,
1999. The merger of Exxon and Mobil was unique in American history because it
reunited the two largest companies of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust, Standard
Oil Company of New Jersey/Exxon and Standard Oil Company of New York/Mobil,
which had been forcibly separated by government order nearly a century earlier. As a
result of the merger, it became largest merger in US corporate history.
In 2000, ExxonMobil sold a refinery in Benicia, California and 340 Exxon-branded
stations to Valero Energy Corporation, as part of an FTC-mandated divestiture of
California assets. ExxonMobil continues to supply petroleum products to over 700
Mobil-branded retail outlets in California.
In 2005, ExxonMobil's stock price surged in parallel with rising oil prices, surpassing
General Electric as the largest corporation in the world in terms of market capitalization.
At the end of 2005, it reported record profits of US $36 billion in annual income, up 42%
from the previous year (the overall annual income was an all-time record for annual
income by any business, and included $10 billion in the third quarter alone, also an alltime record income for a single quarter by any business). The company and the American
Petroleum Institute, the oil and chemical industry's lobbying apparatus, tried to downplay
its success in order to avoid consumer criticism by putting up page-long ads in major
American newspapers, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, comparing
oil industry profits to those of other large industries such as pharmaceuticals and banking.
[10] [11]
[edit]
Criticism
[edit]
Foreign business practices
Investigative reporting by Forbes Magazine raised questions about ExxonMobil's
dealings with the leaders of oil-rich nations." ExxonMobil controls concessions covering
11 million acres (44,500 km) off the coast of Angola that hold an estimated 7.5 billion
barrels (1.2 km) of crude.[4] Forbes alleged that "ExxonMobil handed hundreds of
millions of dollars to the corrupt regime of President Jos Eduardo dos Santos in the late
1990s.[5][6] [7][8] [9]
In 2003, the Office of Foreign Assets Control reported that ExxonMobil engaged in
illegal trade with Sudan and it, along with dozens of other companies, settled with the
United States government for $50,000.[10]
In March 2003, James Giffen of the Mercator Corporation was indicted, accused of
bribing President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan with $78 million to help
ExxonMobil win a 25 percent share of the Tengiz oilfield, the third largest in the world.
On April 2, 2003, former-Mobil executive J. Bryan Williams was indicted on tax charges
relating to this same transaction. The case is the largest under the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act.[11] This series of events is depicted in the film Syriana.
In a U.S. Department of Justice release dated September 18, 2003, the United States
Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that J. Bryan Williams, a
former senior executive of Mobil Oil Corporation, had been sentenced to three years and
ten months in prison on charges of evading income taxes on more than $7 million in
unreported income, "including a $2 million kickback he received in connection with
Mobil's oil business in Kazakhstan." According to documents filed with the court,
Williams' unreported income included millions of dollars in kickbacks from governments,
persons, and other entities with whom Williams conducted business while employed by
Mobil. In addition to his sentence, Williams must pay a fine of $25,000 and more than
$3.5 million in restitution to the IRS, in addition to penalties and interest.[12]
[edit]
Human rights
ExxonMobil is the target of human rights activists for actions taken by the corporation in
the Indonesian territory of Aceh. In June 2001 a lawsuit against ExxonMobil was filed in
the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia under the Alien Tort Claims Act.
The suit alleges that the ExxonMobil knowingly assisted human rights violations,
including torture, murder and rape, by employing and providing material support to
Indonesian military forces, who committed the alleged offenses during civil unrest in
Aceh. Human rights complaints involving ExxonMobil's relationship with the Indonesian
military first arose in 1992; the company denies these accusations and has filed a motion
to dismiss the suit, which as of 2006 is still pending.[12]
The company does not provide domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples,
although former Mobil employees receive that benefit.[13] According to a proxy
statement from ExxonMobil, the company "has zero tolerance discrimination and
harassment policies" on "discrimination and harassment for any reason, including sexual
orientation."[14] ExxonMobil scored a 0 out of 100 on the Corporate Equality Index
2006 for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.[15]
[edit]
Environment
ExxonMobil's environmental record has been a consistent target of critics, not only from
outside organizations like GreenPeace but also from institutional investors unhappy about
its stance on global warming.[16] Based on year 2000 data,[17] ExxonMobil was ranked
sixth on the Toxic 100 list of US corporate air polluters by Political Economy Research
Institute (PERI) [18]
[edit]
Exxon's Brooklyn Oil Spill
Main article: Greenpoint oil spill
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced on July 17, 2007 that he had
filed suit against the ExxonMobil Corporation and ExxonMobil Refining and Supply
Company to force cleanup of the oil spill at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and to restore
Newtown Creek.[19]
A study of the spill released by the US Environmental Protection Agency in September
2007 reported that the spill consists of approximately 17 to 30 million gallons of
petroleum products.[20] By comparison, the Exxon Valdez oil spill was approximately 11
million gallons.[21] The study reported that in the early 1900s Standard Oil of New York
operated a major refinery in the area where the spill is located. The refinery produced fuel
oils, gasoline, kerosene and solvents. Naptha and gas oil, secondary products, were also
stored in the refinery area. Standard Oil of New York later became Mobil, the predecessor
to Exxon/Mobil.[22]
[edit]
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Main article: Exxon Valdez oil spill
The March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill resulted in the discharge of approximately 11
million gallons of oil (240,000 barrels) into Prince William Sound.[21], oiling 1300 miles
of the remote Alaskan coastline. The State of Alaska's Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee
Council stated that the spill "is widely considered the number one spill worldwide in
terms of damage to the environment",[21] but many larger spills have occurred.
Exxon was widely criticized for its slow response to cleaning up the disaster. John
Devens, the Mayor of Valdez, has said his community felt betrayed by Exxon's
inadequate response to the crisis.[23] Exxon later removed the name "Exxon" from its
tanker shipping subsidiary, which it renamed "SeaRiver Maritime." The renamed
subsidiary, though wholly Exxon-controlled, has a separate corporate charter and board
of directors, and the former Exxon Valdez is now the SeaRiver Mediterranean. The
renamed tanker is legally owned by a small, stand-alone company, which would have
minimal ability to pay out on claims in the event of a further accident.[24]
ExxonMobil has yet to pay any of the $2.5 billion USD in punitive damages owed to
33,000 fishermen, businesses, and affected communities as a result of the spill.[25]
Exxon had argued that it should pay no more than $25 million in punitive damages in the
case, and the case is currently on appeal to the United States Supreme Court.[25]
[edit]
Funding of global warming skeptics
ExxonMobil has drawn criticism as a major funder of organizations campaigning against
the scientific opinion that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and
against the Kyoto Protocol. According to Mother Jones Magazine, the company was a
leading member of one of the first such skeptic groups, the Global Climate Coalition,
founded in 1989.[26] According to The Guardian, ExxonMobil has funded, among other
groups skeptical of global warming, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, George C.
Marshall Institute, Heartland Institute, Congress on Racial Equality,
TechCentralStation.com, and International Policy Network.[27][28] ExxonMobil's
support for these organizations has drawn condemnation from the Royal Society, the
academy of sciences of the United Kingdom.[29] The Union of Concerned Scientists
released a report in 2007 accusing ExxonMobil of spending $16 million, between 1998
and 2005, towards 43 advocacy organizations which dispute the impact of global
warming.[30] The report argued that ExxonMobil used disinformation tactics similar to
those used by the tobacco industry in its denials of the link between lung cancer and
smoking, saying that the company used "many of the same organizations and personnel to
cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue."[30]
These charges are consistent with a purported 1998 internal ExxonMobil strategy memo,
posted by the environmental group Environmental Defense, stating
"Victory will be achieved when
Average citizens [and the media] 'understand' (recognize) uncertainties in climate science;
recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the 'conventional wisdom' ...
Industry senior leadership understands uncertainties in climate science, making them
stronger ambassadors to those who shape climate policy
Those promoting the Kyoto treaty on the basis of extant science appear out of touch with
reality."[31]
In August 2006, the Wall Street Journal revealed that a YouTube video lampooning Al
Gore, titled Al Gore's Penguin Army, appeared to be astroturfing by DCI Group, a
Washington PR firm with ties to ExxonMobil as well as the Republican Party.[32][33]
In January 2007, the company appeared to change its position, when vice president for
public affairs Kenneth Cohen said "we know enough now or, society knows enough
now that the risk is serious and action should be taken." Cohen stated that, as of 2006,
ExxonMobil had ceased funding of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and "'five or six'
similar groups".[34] While the company did not publicly state which the other similar
groups were, a May 2007 report by Greenpeace does list the five groups it stopped
funding as well as a list of 41 other climate skeptic groups which are still receiving
ExxonMobil funds.[35]
On February 13, 2007, ExxonMobil CEO Rex W. Tillerson acknowledged that the planet
was warming while carbon dioxide levels were increasing, but in the same speech gave
an unalloyed defense of the oil industry and predicted that hydrocarbons would dominate
the worlds transportation as energy demand grows by an expected 40 percent by 2030.
Tillerson stated that there is no significant alternative to oil in coming decades, and that
ExxonMobil would continue to make petroleum and natural gas its primary products,[36]
saying: "I'm no expert on biofuels. I don't know much about farming and I don't know
much about moonshine. ... There is really nothing ExxonMobil can bring to that whole
biofuels issue. We don't see a direct role for ourselves with today's technology."[37]
[edit]
Corporate Affairs
The current Chairman of the Board and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation is Rex
Tillerson. Tillerson assumed the top position on January 1, 2006, on the retirement of
long-time chairman and CEO, Lee Raymond, who received a retirement and severance
package of approximately $400 million USD, of which some were critical.
[edit]
Board of directors
As of January 29, 2007, the current Exxon Mobil board members are: [38]
Michael Boskin, professor of economics, Stanford University
William W. George, professor of management practice, Harvard Business School
James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Board, Corning Incorporated
William R. Howell, Chairman Emeritus, J.C. Penney Company
Reatha Clark King, former chairman, Board of Trustees, General Mills Foundation
Philip E. Lippincott, retired Chairman of the Board, Scott Paper Company and Campbell
Soup Company
Henry A. McKinnell, Jr., Chairman of the Board and CEO, Pfizer
2004 2005
358 955
2006
377 635