- Pioneer, Exxon Shares Fall After News of Federal Investigation Into Deal The Wall Street Journal
- Majority Leader Schumer Statement On The FTC Investigating Exxon’s Proposed Blockbuster Merger With Pioneer After He Urged FTC To Examine Deal For Anticompetitive Harms | Senate Democratic Leadership Senate Democratic Leadership
- Federal Trade Commission is investigating ExxonMobil’s $60B deal to acquire a Texas oil company Yahoo Finance
- FTC Investigates Exxon’s $60 Billion Deal for Pioneer The Wall Street Journal
- Exxon, Pioneer receive second US FTC request for details on pending takeover Reuters
Tag Archives: Exxon
Stock Market Today: PCE Inflation Data Edges Up, Dow Futures Rise; Exxon, Chevron Stocks in Focus – The Wall Street Journal
- Stock Market Today: PCE Inflation Data Edges Up, Dow Futures Rise; Exxon, Chevron Stocks in Focus The Wall Street Journal
- Stocks erase gains, Dow ends longest win streak since 1987: Stock market news today Yahoo Finance
- Dow Jones Futures Rise After Market Reversal; Tesla Forges New Buy Point As Roku, Intel Jump Late Investor’s Business Daily
- The Dow just posted its best winning streak since the 1980s. Why it keeps going higher CNBC
- The Dow is on pace to do something today it hasn’t done since 1897 Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
White House blasts Exxon over historical $56 bln annual profit
WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – The White House on Tuesday expressed outrage on Tuesday at Exxon Mobil Corp’s record net profit in 2022 of $56 billion, a historical high not just for the company but for the entire Western oil industry.
Oil majors are expected to break their own annual records due to high prices and soaring demand, pushing their combined take to near $200 billion. The scale has brought renewed criticism of the oil industry and sparked calls for more countries to levy windfall profit taxes on the companies.
A White House statement said Exxon’s (XOM.N) profit margin was particularly galling as Americans paid record high prices at the pump. It criticized attempts by Republicans in the House of Representatives to push policies aimed at supporting the oil industry.
“The latest earnings reports make clear that oil companies have everything they need, including record profits and thousands of unused but approved permits, to increase production, but they’re instead choosing to plow those profits into padding the pockets of executives and shareholders while House Republicans manufacture excuse after excuse to shield them from any accountability,” the White House said.
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President Joe Biden has blasted oil companies and refiners for much of the last year for enjoying surging profits as gasoline prices soared. In June, he Biden wrote to executives of major oil refiners and complained they had cut back on production to pad profits, according to a copy of a letter seen by Reuters.
Exxon’s CFO Kathryn Mikells responded to growing criticism over the industry’s windfall profits and suggested the answer is not increased taxes.
“We look at the EU tax on the energy sector, and you know, it’s just unlawful and bad policy trying to tax something, when what you actually need is for it to increase,” Mikells said. “It has the opposite effect of what you’re trying to achieve.”
Reporting By Trevor Hunnicut and Steve Holland; additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Sabrina Valle; Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Dow Jones Futures Fall: Market Rally Wipes Out Powell Gains As Apple, Exxon, Tesla Skid
Dow Jones futures fell early Wednesday, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. Tesla stock retreated as the EV giant offered another price incentive in China.
X
The stock market rally had another weak session, with Apple (AAPL) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) breaking below key levels Tuesday while Amazon.com (AMZN) and Tesla (TSLA) are starting to move toward bear market lows.
The S&P 500 and other key indexes were testing or undercutting key levels, round-tripping last Wednesday’s big gain following Fed chief Jerome Powell’s speech.
This stock market rally has had several big one-day gains followed by pullbacks. That’s made it difficult for stocks flashing buy signals to make headway. It’s not a good time to be adding exposure, but investors should be looking for stocks setting up.
United Rentals (URI), UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and United Airlines (UAL) are all trading near buy points.
UAL stock is on IBD Leaderboard, while URI stock is on the Leaderboard watchlist. United Airlines, Charles Schwab and UNH stock are on the IBD 50. United Rentals was Tuesday’s IBD Stock Of The Day.
Earnings News
Database software maker MongoDB (MDB) surged early Wednesday on a surprise profit. MDB stock has plunged over the past year.
Driver-assistance systems maker Mobileye (MBLY) beat views in its first report since coming public in late October. MBLY stock was up and down.
Ollie’s Bargain Outlet (OLLI) tumbled after the close-out retailer missed on earnings and sales.
Dow Jones Futures Today
Dow Jones futures retreated 0.3% vs. fair value. S&P 500 futures sank 0.6% and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1%.
The 10-year Treasury yield advanced 4 basis points to 3.55%.
Crude oil futures edged higher. Natural gas prices climbed 3%. The U.S. agreed to send more LNG to the U.K.
China scrapped some more Covid rules, as expected, but trade data came in weaker than expected. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which had been running higher, fell 3.2%.
Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn’t necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.
Join IBD experts as they analyze actionable stocks in the stock market rally on IBD Live
Stock Market Rally
The stock market rally quickly retreated after Tuesday’s open and continued to trend lower during the day before slightly paring losses near the close.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1% in Tuesday’s stock market trading. The S&P 500 index gave up 1.4%. The Nasdaq composite tumbled 2%. The small-cap Russell 2000 retreated 1.5%
U.S. crude oil prices slumped 3.5% to $74.25 a barrel.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell 9 basis points to 3.51%, back near the lowest levels since Sept. 20.
The stock market’s inverse relationship with Treasury yields may be breaking down. A lower 10-year Treasury yield increasingly may reflect rising recession risks vs. declining inflation pressures. The yield curve, which keeps inverting further, also indicates recession concerns.
Megacap Losers
Apple stock, a member of the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite, slid 2.5% to 142.91, back below its 50-day line. XOM stock sank 2.8%, also below its 50-day line as well as under a buy point. Exxon stock is struggling as oil, gasoline and natural gas prices all slump.
Amazon stock slumped 3% to 88.25, closing in on its Nov. 9 bear low of 85.87.
Tesla stock fell 1.4% to 179.82, off intraday lows, but after tumbling 6.4% on Monday. TSLA is moving toward 52-week lows but still has some distance to go before it drops to that 166.19 mark.
Tesla is now offering a 6,000 yuan ($860) discount on inventory cars in China, on top of an existing 4,000 yuan insurance subsidy. Along with other incentives, Tesla China is offering over 20,000 yuan in incentives, and that’s before government subsidies of 11,088 yuan.
Meanwhile, there are more signs that Tesla will reintroduce radar into its vehicles. Elon Musk removed radar from new Tesla EVs in 2021, during the chip crisis, saying vision-only would be better for self-driving. Nearly all other autonomous driving players use a variety of sensors.
TSLA stock fell 3% early Wednesday.
ETFs
Among key tech ETFs, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) gave up 1.7%. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) slumped 2.2%.
SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (XME) edged up 0.25% and the Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE) edged down 0.3%. U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) held altitude. SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) fell 1.4%. The Energy Select SPDR ETF (XLE) slumped 2.6% and the Financial Select SPDR ETF (XLF) 0.9%. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) declined 0.8%.
Reflecting more-speculative story stocks, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) fell 4% and ARK Genomics ETF (ARKG) 3%. Tesla stock is a major holding across Ark Invest’s ETFs.
Five Best Chinese Stocks To Watch Now
Stocks Near Buy Points
United Rentals stock rose 0.5% to 347.29, just above the 21-day line. URI stock has a 368.04 handle buy point from a consolidation going back to November 2021. Breaking the downtrend of the handle could offer an early entry. Several heavy-equipment plays, including Deere (DE), Caterpillar (CAT) and Titan Machinery (TITN), also are looking strong.
UNH stock edged up 0.8% to 539.32. The Dow Jones giant has a 558.20 buy point from a flat base next to a cup-with-handle consolidation.
UAL stock climbed 2% to 45.92, just above the 45.67 cup-with-handle buy point, according to MarketSmith analysis. Some other airline and travel stocks are looking strong.
Why This IBD Tool Simplifies The Search For Top Stocks
Market Rally Analysis
The stock market rally continues a frustrating trend of jumping ahead four steps, then giving that back over the next few days.
The major indexes have fallen solidly for two straight sessions, wiping out or undercutting the big gains on Fed chief Jerome Powell’s speech last Wednesday.
The S&P 500 index, which fell back below the 200-day line Monday, extended losses Tuesday to undercut the 21-day line. The Russell 2000, which dropped below the 200-day and 21-day lines, slid to the lowest close since Nov. 9, with the 50-day line coming back in play.
The S&P MidCap 400 closed below its 21-day line for the first time since Oct. 20 and retreated to test its 200-day.
The Dow Jones, which has led the market rally, fell below its 21-day line for the first time since Oct. 14, but is well above its 200-day.
The laggard Nasdaq undercut its 21-day line and is once again approaching its 50-day line, just above the 11,000 level.
All of these indexes closed at their worst levels since Oct. 9, just before the Oct. 10 gap-up on the October CPI inflation report.
Last Wednesday’s big market gains were puzzling at the time, because Fed chief Powell didn’t say anything especially different or dovish. The major indexes holding up Friday, with Treasury yields ultimately closing lower, despite the hot jobs report was even more puzzling.
But the technical picture is familiar.
Since the stock market rally began on Oct. 13, The major indexes have had several big one-day gains — such as Oct. 28 and Nov. 30. But then they’ve soon fallen back, wiping out most, all or more than all of that big gain.
So right as the major indexes hit higher highs and leading stocks flash buy signals, the market rally starts to fade again.
Time The Market With IBD’s ETF Market Strategy
What To Do Now
So far, the market rally has eventually rebounded each time, setting higher highs along the way. But that doesn’t mean it will happen this time. More importantly, it doesn’t mean that your stocks will rebound.
Until the S&P 500 moves decisively above the 200-day line, investors should be wary of adding exposure. The Nasdaq and Russell 2000 falling below their 50-day lines, and the S&P 500 testing its October highs, would be signs to reduce exposure further.
Also note that the November CPI inflation report comes out Dec. 13, with the year-end Fed rate hike and Powell news conference the following day. Those big events could provide the catalyst for a market rally break higher or lower.
So investors should be ready to act. That means having watchlists ready, but it also means staying engaged and flexible.
Read The Big Picture every day to stay in sync with the market direction and leading stocks and sectors.
Please follow Ed Carson on Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.
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Market Rally Wipes Out Powell Gains As Apple, Exxon Skid; What To Do Now
Dow Jones futures tilted higher overnight, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. The stock market rally had another weak session, with Apple (AAPL) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) breaking below key levels while Amazon.com (AMZN) and Tesla (TSLA) are starting to move toward bear market lows.
X
The S&P 500 and other key indexes were testing or undercutting key levels, round-tripping last Wednesday’s big gain following Fed chief Jerome Powell’s speech.
This stock market rally has had several big one-day gains followed by pullbacks. That’s made it difficult for stocks flashing buy signals to make headway. It’s not a good time to be adding exposure, but investors should be looking for stocks setting up.
United Rentals (URI), UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and United Airlines (UAL) are all trading near buy points.
UAL stock is on IBD Leaderboard, while URI stock is on the Leaderboard watchlist. United Airlines, Charles Schwab and UNH stock are on the IBD 50. United Rentals was Tuesday’s IBD Stock Of The Day.
Dow Jones Futures Today
Dow Jones futures were just above fair value. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.15%.
Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn’t necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.
Join IBD experts as they analyze actionable stocks in the stock market rally on IBD Live
Stock Market Rally
The stock market rally quickly retreated after Tuesday’s open and continued to trend lower during the day before slightly paring losses near the close.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1% in Tuesday’s stock market trading. The S&P 500 index gave up 1.4%. The Nasdaq composite tumbled 2%. The small-cap Russell 2000 retreated 1.5%
Apple stock, a member of the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite, slid 2.5% to 142.91, back below its 50-day line. XOM stock sank 2.8%, also below its 50-day line as well as under a buy point. Exxon stock is struggling as oil, gasoline and natural gas prices all slump.
Amazon stock slumped 3% to 88.25, closing in on its Nov. 9 bear low of 85.87. Tesla stock fell 1.4% to 179.82, off intraday lows, but after tumbling 6.4% on Monday. TSLA is moving toward 52-week lows but still has some distance to go before it drops to that 166.19 mark.
U.S. crude oil prices slumped 3.5% to $74.25 a barrel.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell 9 basis points to 3.51%, back near the lowest levels since Sept. 20.
The stock market’s inverse relationship with Treasury yields may be breaking down. A lower 10-year Treasury yield increasingly may reflect rising recession risks vs. declining inflation pressures. The yield curve, which keeps inverting further, also indicates recession concerns.
ETFs
Among key tech ETFs, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) gave up 1.7%. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) slumped 2.2%.
SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (XME) edged up 0.25% and the Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE) edged down 0.3%. U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) held altitude. SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) fell 1.4%. The Energy Select SPDR ETF (XLE) slumped 2.6% and the Financial Select SPDR ETF (XLF) 0.9%. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) declined 0.8%.
Reflecting more-speculative story stocks, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) fell 4% and ARK Genomics ETF (ARKG) 3%. Tesla stock is a major holding across Ark Invest’s ETFs.
Five Best Chinese Stocks To Watch Now
Stocks Near Buy Points
United Rentals stock rose 0.5% to 347.29, just above the 21-day line. URI stock has a 368.04 handle buy point from a consolidation going back to November 2021. Breaking the downtrend of the handle could offer an early entry. Several heavy-equipment plays, including Deere (DE), Caterpillar (CAT) and Titan Machinery (TITN), also are looking strong.
UNH stock edged up 0.8% to 539.32. The Dow Jones giant has a 558.20 buy point from a flat base next to a cup-with-handle consolidation.
UAL stock climbed 2% to 45.92, just above the 45.67 cup-with-handle buy point, according to MarketSmith analysis. Some other airline and travel stocks are looking strong.
Why This IBD Tool Simplifies The Search For Top Stocks
Market Rally Analysis
The stock market rally continues a frustrating trend of jumping ahead four steps, then giving that back over the next few days.
The major indexes have fallen solidly for two straight sessions, wiping out or undercutting the big gains on Fed chief Jerome Powell’s speech last Wednesday.
The S&P 500 index, which fell back below the 200-day line Monday, extended losses Tuesday to undercut the 21-day line. The Russell 2000, which dropped below the 200-day and 21-day lines, slid to the lowest close since Nov. 9, with the 50-day line coming back in play.
The S&P MidCap 400 closed below its 21-day line for the first time since Oct. 20 and retreated to test its 200-day.
The Dow Jones, which has led the market rally, fell below its 21-day line for the first time since Oct. 14, but is well above its 200-day.
The laggard Nasdaq undercut its 21-day line and is once again approaching its 50-day line, just above the 11,000 level.
All of these indexes closed at their worst levels since Oct. 9, just before the Oct. 10 gap-up on the October CPI inflation report.
Last Wednesday’s big market gains were puzzling at the time, because Fed chief Powell didn’t say anything especially different or dovish. The major indexes holding up Friday, with Treasury yields ultimately closing lower, despite the hot jobs report was even more puzzling.
But the technical picture is familiar.
Since the stock market rally began on Oct. 13, The major indexes have had several big one-day gains — such as Oct. 28 and Nov. 30. But then they’ve soon fallen back, wiping out most, all or more than all of that big gain.
So right as the major indexes hit higher highs and leading stocks flash buy signals, the market rally starts to fade again.
Time The Market With IBD’s ETF Market Strategy
What To Do Now
So far, the market rally has eventually rebounded each time, setting higher highs along the way. But that doesn’t mean it will happen this time. More importantly, it doesn’t mean that your stocks will rebound.
Until the S&P 500 moves decisively above the 200-day line, investors should be wary of adding exposure. The Nasdaq and Russell 2000 falling below their 50-day lines, and the S&P 500 testing its October highs, would be signs to reduce exposure further.
Also note that the November CPI inflation report comes out Dec. 13, with the year-end Fed rate hike and Powell news conference the following day. Those big events could provide the catalyst for a market rally break higher or lower.
So investors should be ready to act. That means having watchlists ready, but it also means staying engaged and flexible.
Read The Big Picture every day to stay in sync with the market direction and leading stocks and sectors.
Please follow Ed Carson on Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:
Want To Get Quick Profits And Avoid Big Losses? Try SwingTrader
Best Growth Stocks To Buy And Watch
IBD Digital: Unlock IBD’s Premium Stock Lists, Tools And Analysis
Tesla Vs. BYD: Which EV Giant Is The Better Buy?
A big new Exxon Mobil climate deal that got assist from Joe Biden
Could it be that Big Oil’s next big thing got a big assist from Joe Biden?
Maybe, if carbon capture and storage is indeed as big a deal as ExxonMobil’s first-of-its-kind deal to extract, transport and store carbon from other companies’ factories implies.
The deal, announced last month, calls for ExxonMobil to capture carbon emitted by CF Industries‘ ammonia factory in Donaldsonville, La., and transport it to underground storage using pipelines owned by Enlink Midstream. Set to start up in 2025, the deal is meant to herald a new stage in dealing with carbon produced by manufacturers, and is the latest step in ExxonMobil’s often-tense dialogue with investors who want oil companies to slash emissions.
The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August, may determine whether deals like Exxon’s become a trend. The law expands tax credits for capturing carbon from industrial uses in a bid to offset the high up-front costs of plans to capture carbon from places like CF’s plant, as other tax credits in the law lower costs of renewable power and electric cars.
The Inflation Reduction Act and Big Oil
The law may help oil companies like ExxonMobil build profitable businesses to replace some of the revenue and profit they’ll lose as EVs proliferate. Though the company isn’t sharing financial projections, it has committed to investing $15 billion in CCS by 2027 and ExxonMobil Low-Carbon Solutions president Dan Ammann says it may invest more.
“We see a big business opportunity here,” Ammann told CNBC’s David Faber. “We’re seeing interest from companies across a whole range of industries, a whole range of sectors, a whole range of geographies.”
The deal calls for ExxonMobil to capture and remove 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide yearly from CF’s factory, equivalent to replacing 700,000 gasoline-powered vehicles with electric versions.
Each company involved is pursuing its own version of the low-carbon industrial economy. CF wants to produce more carbon-free blue ammonia, a process that often involves extracting ammonia’s components from carbon-laden fossil fuels. Enlink hopes to become a kind of railroad for captured CO2 emissions, calling itself the would-be “CO2 transportation provider of choice” for an industrial corridor laden with refineries and chemical plants.
An industrial facility on the Houston Ship Channel where Exxon Mobil is proposing a carbon capture and sequestration network. Between this industry-wide plan and its first deal for another company’s CCS needs, ExxonMobil is hoping that its low-carbon business quickly scales to a legitimate source of revenue and profit.
CNBC
Exxon itself wants to develop carbon capture as a new business, Amman said, pointing to a “very big backlog of similar projects,” part of the company’s pledge to remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as Exxon itself emits by 2050.
“We want oil companies to be active participants in carbon reduction,” said Julio Friedmann, a deputy assistant energy secretary under President Obama and chief scientist at Carbon Direct in New York. “It’s my expectation that this can become a flagship project.”
The key to the sudden flurry of activity is the Inflation Reduction Act.
“It’s a really good example of the intersection of good policy coming together with business and the innovation that can happen on the business side to tackle the big problem of emissions and the big problem of climate change,” Ammann said. “The interest we are seeing, the backlog, are all confirming this is starting to move and starting to move quickly.”
The law increased an existing tax credit for carbon capture to $85 a ton from $45, Goldman said, which will save the Exxon/CF/Enlink project as much as $80 million a year. Credits for captured carbon used underground to enhance production of more fossil fuels are lower, at $60 per ton.
“Carbon capture is a big boys’ game,” said Peter McNally, global sector lead for industrial, materials and energy research at consulting firm Third Bridge. “These are billion-dollar projects. It’s big companies capturing large amounts of carbon. And big oil and gas companies are where the expertise is.”
Goldman Sachs, and environmentalists, are skeptical
A Goldman Sachs team led by analyst Brian Singer called the law “transformative” for climate reduction technologies including battery storage and clean hydrogen. But its analysis is less bullish when it comes to the impact on carbon capture projects like Exxon’s, with Singer expecting more modest gains as the law accelerates development in longer-term projects. To speed up investment more, companies must build CCS systems at greater scale and invent more efficient carbon-extraction chemistry, the Goldman team said.
Industrial uses are the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., according to the EPA. That’s narrowly behind both electricity production and transportation. Emissions reduction in industrial uses is considered more expensive and difficult than in either power generation or car and truck transport. Industry is the focus for CCS because utilities and vehicle makers are looking first to other technologies to cut emissions.
Almost 20 percent of U.S. electricity last year came from renewable sources that replace coal and natural gas and another 19 percent came from carbon-free nuclear power, according to government data. Renewables’ share is rising rapidly in 2022, according to interim Energy Department reports, and the IRA also expands tax credits for wind and solar power. Most airlines plan to reduce their carbon footprint by switching to biofuels over the next decade.
More oil and chemical companies seem likely to get on the carbon capture bandwagon first. In May, British oil giant BP and petrochemical maker Linde announced a plan to capture 15 million tons of carbon annually at Linde’s plants in Greater Houston. Linde wants to expand its sales of low-carbon hydrogen, which is usually made by mixing natural gas with steam and a chemical catalyst. In March, Oxy announced a deal with a unit of timber producer Weyerhauser. Oxy won the rights to store carbon underneath 30,000 acres of Weyerhauser’s forest land, even as it continues to grow trees on the surface, with both companies prepared to expand to other sites over time.
Still, environmentalists remain skeptical of CCS.
Tax credits may cut the cost of CCS to companies, but taxpayers still foot the bill for what remains a “boondoggle,” said Carroll Muffett, CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington. The biggest part of industrial emissions comes from the electricity that factories use, and factory owners should reduce that part of their carbon footprint with renewable power as a top priority, he said.
“It makes no economic sense at the highest levels, and the IRA doesn’t change that,” Muffett said. “It just changes who takes the risk.”
Friedman countered by saying economies of scale and technical innovations will trim costs, and that CCS can reduce carbon emissions by as much as 10 percent over time.
“It’s a rather robust number,” Friedmann said. “And it’s about things you can’t easily address any other way.”
Exxon employees are quitting in droves over company’s strict culture, report says
Exxon Mobil is experiencing its highest employee attrition in decades, with disgruntled workers complaining of a strict, fear-based company culture, according to a new report.
In the past two years, even as Exxon reaped record profits, it has lost 12,000 employees globally, less than half of whom were laid off, according to a lengthy report in Bloomberg Businessweek on Thursday.
Citing interviews with more than 40 current and former Exxon employees, the report detailed how many bristled at a culture they describe as stagnant and overbearing.
In one instance, at a virtual town hall last year, Exxon’s global IT vice president Bill Keillor reportedly exploded when workers peppered him with tough questions about compensation and remote working policies in a rare show of defiance.
Keillor snapped and said that anyone who wanted to be a ‘hotshot’ should go work for Amazon, adding ‘good luck to you,’ people in attendance recalled.
Exxon disputed the article’s characterization of its corporate culture as untrue, with a spokeswoman saying that isolated incidents had been blown out of proportion.
Exxon Mobil is experiencing its highest employee attrition in decades, with disgruntled workers complaining of a strict, fear-based company culture
Exxon’s global IT vice president Bill Keillor reportedly exploded when workers peppered him with tough questions about compensation and remote working policies
‘Like nearly every company, attrition increased in the last two years, but we don’t see that as a long-term trend,’ Exxon said in a statement.
‘Importantly, we are seeing good results when hiring top talent for roles throughout the company, at entry-level and for senior executive positions,’ the company said.
A titan in the oil industry with a 140-year history, Exxon does have a reputation for old-school corporate management practices that can seem out of step with the time.
Acronyms and jargon are ubiquitous, and to rise through the ranks, employees must operate under a strict hierarchy with stringent rules, according to Bloomberg.
One such rule requires workers to hold the handrail at all times on staircases. While it was written primarily with oil rigs and refining plants in mind, the rule is strictly enforced, even in corporate offices.
The exterior of the ExxonMobil Houston campus is seen above. Workers at the office are required to hold handrails on stairs, though the rule was intended primarily for oil rigs
The sun sets on an ExxonMobil natural gas rig in the Gulf of Mexico in a file photo
Dar-Lon Chang, a mechanical engineer who left the company in 2019 after nearly two decades, told the magazine: ‘Upper management doesn’t like to hear bad news, so to stay at Exxon long term, you have to drink the Kool-Aid.’
‘This doesn’t sit well with younger people and especially those concerned about the climate crisis,’ said Chang, who said that when he joined Exxon in 2003, he believed it would play a key role in shifting the world away from fossil fuels.
Instead, Chang said he was disappointed, alleging the company repeatedly rejected potential investments in renewables over profitability concerns.
Another incident troubled some Exxon employees of color, when the company issued an edict in April 2020 banning ‘external position flags’ from its main corporate flagpoles, such as Gay Pride and Black Lives Matter.
Former Exxon worker Dar-Lon Chang (above) said: ‘Upper management doesn’t like to hear bad news, so to stay at Exxon long term, you have to drink the Kool-Aid’
Because the rainbow Pride flag had flown on the same poles a year earlier, some black employees were outraged, suspecting the policy targeted the BLM flag specifically.
Exxon insisted in a statement that diversity is ’embedded in our core values.’
‘The idea that ExxonMobil’s culture is what these employees say it is doesn’t hold water for two reasons: how many people join this company each year and how long people stay,’ a company spokeswoman said.
‘No culture is perfect and it’s far too easy to take a few data points and paint with a broad brush, but that doesn’t produce an accurate portrait.’
Exxon illegally fired two scientists suspected of leaking information to WSJ, Labor Department says
New York
CNN
—
ExxonMobil has been ordered to reinstate two scientists who were fired after being suspected of leaking information to The Wall Street Journal, the US Labor Department said Friday.
A federal whistleblower investigation found the oil and gas giant terminated the two computational scientists illegally in late 2020. The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration also ordered ExxonMobil to pay the two employees back more than $800,000 in back wages, interest and compensatory damages.
An article in The Wall Street Journal last year claimed ExxonMobil might have inflated its production estimates and the value of oil and gas wells in the Texas Permian Basin, where much of US production is located. The story scrutinized the company’s assumption in its 2019 SEC filings that drilling speed would increase substantially in the next five years.
Exxon denied the allegations at the time, maintaining that it was reaching its drilling targets. “The claims made about drilling rates are demonstrably false,” an ExxonMobil spokesperson said.
The two unidentified employees “raised concerns about the company’s use of these assumptions in late 2020,” according to the Labor Department’s release. Exxon claimed it fired one scientist for “mishandling proprietary company information,” the Labor Department statement said, and the other for “having a ‘negative attitude,’ looking for other jobs, and losing the confidence of company management.”
In a statement to CNN Business, Exxon denied the allegations and said that it will “defend itself accordingly.”
“The terminations in late 2020 were unrelated to the ill-founded concerns raised by the employees in 2019,” an ExxonMobil spokesperson said.
Though neither employee was revealed as a source for the Journal’s story, OSHA learned that the company knew one of the scientists was a relative of a source quoted in the WSJ article and had access to the leaked information.
“ExxonMobil’s actions are unacceptable. The integrity of the US financial system relies on companies to report their financial condition and assets accurately,” said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker.
Exxon Expects To Post Strong Q3 Earnings
Exxon expects to report strong financial results for the third quarter of the year after smashing previous profit records in the second quarter on the back of the oil and gas price rally.
Per a Reuters report citing a snapshot issued by the supermajor, Exxon could book a third-quarter net profit close to its second-quarter record of $17.9 billion.
Average oil prices in the third quarter were $98 per barrel of Brent, which was substantially lower than the $109-per-barrel average in the second quarter, but still high enough to boost profits.
Natural as prices on international markets in the period averaged $7.95 per million British thermal units, however, up from $7.17 million per mmBtu in the second quarter, Reuters also noted.
Exxon booked second-quarter earnings of $4.21 per share assuming dilution. This is nearly quadruple the $4.69 billion in earnings for the second quarter of last year, and more than triple the earnings from the first quarter of this year. Exxon’s earnings per share easily beat the analyst consensus of $3.84.
Higher oil and gas prices, the highest refining margins in years, increased production, and aggressive cost control all contributed to the record-breaking profits at Exxon, which beat its previous quarterly earnings record from 2012 and the quarterly profits from 2008 when Brent prices hit a record $147 per barrel.
Now, despite the almost 25-percent slide in oil prices during the third quarter of the year, price levels remained conducive to higher profits, especially coupled with the increase in gas prices on international markets demand continued to outstrip supply.
The outlook for the immediate term is bullish, too, as the market anticipates a deep production cut from OPEC+, which would push oil prices significantly higher, creating yet another potential windfall for the industry, in which Exxon is among the biggest players.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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Chevron, Exxon post record profits from oil-price boom
The blockbuster results come a day after Europe-based Shell also posted record profits: The three, plus France’s TotalEnergies, collectively earned nearly $51 billion in the most recent quarter, nearly twice what they brought in during the same three months in 2021, according to Reuters.
The staggering results are mostly tied to the West’s effort to punish Russia for the unprovoked attack on its neighbor by cutting off its energy sales. Crude prices that had shriveled in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic suddenly swelled, and are now 37 percent higher than they were a year ago. That’s still lower than what markets commanded in June, when West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. oil benchmark, surged over $120 per barrel. As of Friday, WTI remained close to $100 per barrel.
Energy companies have flourish as the rest of Wall Street has gotten hammered this year. Vanguard’s Energy Index Fund, an exchange-traded fund that includes major oil companies, is up 37 percent year to date even as the broad-based S&P 500 index has pulled back 14 percent. Exxon and Chevron shares have soared 51 percent and 36 percent, respectively.
Consumers and businesses have felt the sting of surging fuel prices amid decades-high inflation.
The U.S. average for a gallon of gasoline price topped $5 for the first time in June. On Friday it stood at $4.26, according to AAA. Consumers’ gasoline bills surged nearly 49 percent that month, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday, after rising 20 percent in May. Diesel fuel, which underlies much of the U.S. shipping system, has also spiked, putting pressure on major retailers in a fragile economy.
President Biden, facing criticism from the right over his handling of inflation and the economy, called out Exxon for making “more money than God” in a June address, while imploring it and Chevron to redouble their efforts to get more oil supply on the market.
In late June, Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth responded with a sharply worded letter admonishing the administration for its attempts, “to criticize, and at times vilify, our industry.”
He added that Chevron “is also concerned about the higher prices Americans are experiencing,” while highlighting his companies recent capital expenditures.
Oil companies are pumping more to meet demand, with Exxon increasing its oil and gas production in the Permian Basin by 130,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day compared with the first half of 2021. But the market for crude oil still suffers a drastic imbalance in supply and demand, and industry insiders say it will take years to bring new supply online.
“If you look at what it takes to bring on new investments to grow supply in the oil industry, it is a fairly long-cycle investment … three to five years is a reasonable time frame to think about bringing significant additional production into the mix,” Exxon chief executive Darren Woods said on CNBC Friday.
Alongside the production increases, oil giants are also sending billions of dollars to Wall Street through share buybacks and dividends. Exxon reported that it distributed $7.6 billion to shareholders, including dividends, while Shell announced $6 billion in share buybacks designed to boost its stock price.
Exxon stock jumped 4.7 percent Friday, closing at $96.97, while Chevron spiked 8.9 percent to settle at $163.78. Shell climbed 3.7 percent, to $53.38.
The gains came as the rest of Wall Street wrapped up July with a third consecutive winning session. The Dow Jones industrial average added 315.50 points, or 1 percent, to land at 32,845.13. The S&P 500 jumped 1.4 percent to close at 4,130.29, and the Nasdaq climbed 1.9 percent to finish at 12,390.69.
For the week, the Dow rose 3 percent, the S&P 500 4.3 percent and the Nasdaq 4.7 percent.
For July, the Dow gained 6.7 percent, the S&P 500 grew 9.1 percent and the Nasdaq spiked 12.4 percent. Those were the biggest monthly gains for all three indexes since November 2020, according to MarketWatch.