ExxonMobil

Exxon Mobil Corporation, usually called ExxonMobil, is an American energy and chemicals company headquartered in Spring, Texas. It finds and produces crude oil and natural gas, refines them into fuels, makes petrochemicals, and is building lower-emission businesses such as carbon capture and storage. The company reported sales and other operating revenue of $323.9 billion for 2025.

History of ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil traces its roots to Standard Oil, the oil trust built by John D. Rockefeller in the nineteenth century. The corporation itself was incorporated in New Jersey in 1882, and its latest annual report still gives that year and state as its starting point.

Its European arm has a documented early date as well. On 11 March 1891, five companies in the Netherlands and Belgium set up the American Petroleum Company, with offices in Antwerp and Rotterdam, to import lamp oil. The company says this makes ExxonMobil the oldest hydrocarbons company still operating in the Benelux countries.

In 1911 the United States Supreme Court ordered the Rockefeller monopoly to be divided, which produced several separate firms often called the baby Standard Oils. One was Standard Oil of New Jersey, known as Jersey Standard, from which the Exxon side of the company descends. Two others, the Vacuum Oil Company and Standard Oil of New York (Socony), later formed the Mobil side.

Vacuum Oil and Socony merged in 1931 to create Socony-Vacuum. Vacuum Oil already sold gasoline under the brand Mobilgas, and Socony used the flying horse Pegasus as its symbol, so the merger joined a name and a logo that survive today in simplified form. The company became Socony Mobil Oil in 1955 and Mobil Oil in 1966. In December 1999, Exxon merged with Mobil to form Exxon Mobil Corporation, reuniting two major heirs of the Rockefeller empire after nearly nine decades.

Products and services of ExxonMobil

According to its annual report, ExxonMobil’s principal business is exploration for and production of crude oil and natural gas, together with the manufacture, trade, transport and sale of crude oil, natural gas, petroleum products, petrochemicals and specialty products. The company also lists newer lines of work: carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and ammonia, lower-emission fuels, Proxxima resin systems, carbon materials, low-carbon data centers and lithium.

The company does business under several names, including Exxon, Esso, Mobil and XTO. Its financial reporting names an Upstream segment, which covers finding and producing oil and gas, and Energy Products, Chemical Products and Specialty Products segments, which cover manufacturing and sales. The terms upstream and downstream are common in the industry: upstream means producing the raw oil and gas, while downstream means refining, chemicals and selling finished products.

Research supports these businesses. ExxonMobil spent $1,228 million on research and development in 2025 and held more than 8 thousand active patents worldwide at the end of the year, although it states that the profitability of each segment does not depend on any single patent or license.

Corporate structure and operations of ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol XOM, and its principal executive offices are at 22777 Springwoods Village Parkway in Spring, Texas. At the end of 2025 it had about 57,900 regular employees, down from about 60,900 a year earlier. More than 59 percent of its employees work outside the United States, and more than 160 nationalities are represented. Career employees stay about 30 years on average, according to the company.

Oil and gas output is counted in oil-equivalent barrels per day, a unit that converts natural gas into the amount of crude oil with similar energy content so the two can be added together. In 2025 the company reported net production of 2.1 million oil-equivalent barrels per day in the United States, concentrated in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. Canada contributed 519 thousand oil-equivalent barrels per day, and the company also produces in Guyana and Brazil.

Gas is also moving into new forms. Development continued on the Golden Pass liquefied natural gas export project in the United States, and the first processing unit, or train, reached mechanical completion in late 2025. The company invested $19.0 billion during 2025 to progress the development of reported proved undeveloped reserves, meaning oil and gas that has been found and is expected to be recoverable but still requires drilling or facilities.

Financial profile of ExxonMobil

Because oil and gas prices move with the world economy, ExxonMobil’s results change from year to year. Sales and other operating revenue was $334.7 billion in 2023, $339.2 billion in 2024 and $323.9 billion in 2025. Net income attributable to the company was $36.0 billion, $33.7 billion and $28.8 billion in those years, and earnings per share were $8.89, $7.84 and $6.70.

The company also reports return on average capital employed, a measure of profit relative to the money invested in the business. It fell from 15.0 percent in 2023 to 12.7 percent in 2024 and 9.3 percent in 2025. At the end of 2025, total assets were $449.0 billion, long-term debt was $34.2 billion, and debt made up 14.0 percent of total capital.

Impact of ExxonMobil

As one of the largest private producers of fossil fuels, ExxonMobil is closely tied to the global energy supply. The company says demand for energy and petrochemicals is closely linked to broad economic activity, and that a sharp rise in oil or gas prices can hurt its manufacturing segments, which rely on those materials.

Its newer ventures respond to the debate over climate change. The annual report states that growth in carbon capture, hydrogen and similar businesses depends on supportive and stable government policy and on technology that can work at commercial scale. Those conditions are still developing, so the size of these businesses relative to oil and gas remains modest.

Criticism and controversies

ExxonMobil is a defendant in lawsuits filed by governments and other parties asking courts for relief for alleged injuries connected to climate change. Local governments in Louisiana have also sued a number of oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil, seeking compensation for the restoration of coastal marsh erosion.

The company states that it believes the legal and factual theories in these cases are meritless, that it will continue to defend itself vigorously, and that the likelihood of an outcome materially harming the corporation is remote. The cases remain unresolved, and courts will decide the claims. The company’s own account appears in the legal contingencies note of its annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 4, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue