[7][8]: 1  Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was formed in 1999 following the merger of Exxon and Mobil.

[9][10][11] Approximately 55.56% of the company's shares are held by institutions, the largest of which as of 2019 were The Vanguard Group (8.15%), BlackRock (6.61%), and State Street Corporation (4.83%).

The company has been widely criticized and sued, mostly for environmental incidents and its history of climate change denial against the scientific consensus that fossil fuels significantly contribute to global warming.

[13][14] The company has been the target of accusations of human rights violations, excessive influence on American foreign policy, and its impact on developing countries.

[27] ExxonMobil exited the West Qurna 1 oilfield in January 2024, officially ending all energy sector operations in Iraq.

[33] Oil was discovered off the coast of Angola in May 2024 in a well drilled from February to April in the Kizomba B development area.

[34] Until the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, ExxonMobil held 85,000 acres (34,000 ha) in the Sakhalin-I project through its subsidiary Exxon Neftegas.

Mobil is ExxonMobil's primary retail gasoline brand in California, Florida, New York, New England, the Great Lakes, and the Midwest.

ExxonMobil has stations in 46 states, just behind Shell USA and ahead of Phillips 66, lacking a presence only in Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, and Kansas.

Its principal products include basic olefins and aromatics, ethylene glycol, polyethylene, and polypropylene along with speciality lines such as elastomers, plasticizers, solvents, process fluids, oxo alcohols and adhesive resins.

[48][49][50] ExxonMobil operates 21 refineries worldwide, and the company claims 80% of its refining capacity is integrated with chemical or lube basestocks.

Officially formed with ExxonMobil's 2022 corporate restructuring, and currently led by former General Motors president Dan Ammann, Low Carbon Solutions is the company's alternative energy division.

The division says it will lower emissions in hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as heavy industry, commercial transportation, and power generation using a combination of lower-emission fuels, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage.

[57][58] The company speculated in April 2023 that pending good economic conditions, the low-carbon solutions business could eclipse the value of its oil and gas operations.

[59] As of 2023[update], the company was in the process of designing its inaugural large-scale plant dedicated to producing low-carbon hydrogen, situated within its refining and petrochemical complex in Baytown, Texas.

[65] Exxon is working on low-carbon energy projects, focusing on basic research in five to ten key areas.

This work spends a fraction of the $1 billion a year Exxon spends on research worldwide and the $8 billion it has spent since 2000 researching, developing and deploying low-carbon technologies Projects include: algae biofuels, biodiesel from agricultural waste, molten carbonate fuel cells, and new ways to manufacture plastic that produce less carbon dioxide.

In June 2024, a preliminary agreement to supply lithium to SK for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries that will power electric vehicles was signed.

[72][73] As of 2005[update], ExxonMobil had committed less than 1% of their profits towards researching alternative energy,[74] which, according to the advocacy organization Ceres, is less than other leading oil companies.

ExxonMobil's prolonged response incited the creation of the Exxon Knew movement, which aims to hold the company accountable for various climate-related incidents.

ExxonMobil has used its own website to attack Exxon Knew, claiming that it is a coordinated effort to defame the company.

[81][82][83] In December 2022, U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney and U.S. House Oversight Environment Subcommittee Chair Ro Khanna sent a memorandum to all House Oversight and Reform Committee members summarizing additional findings from the committee's investigation into the fossil fuel industry disinformation campaign to obscure the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming.

Upon reviewing internal company documents, they accused ExxonMobil along with BP, Chevron, and Shell of greenwashing their Paris Agreement carbon neutrality pledges while continuing long-term investment in fossil fuel production and sales, for engaging in a campaign to promote the use of natural gas as a clean energy source and bridge fuel to renewable energy, and of intimidating journalists reporting about the companies' climate actions and of obstructing the committee's investigation, which ExxonMobil, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute denied.

[101][102] Beginning in the late 1980s, ExxonMobil (through predecessor Mobil) hired military units of the Indonesian National Army to provide security for their gas extraction and liquefaction project in Aceh, Indonesia, and these military units were accused of committing human rights violations, including sexual assault, battery and unlawful detention.

[108] In May 2024, a Pennsylvania jury found ExxonMobil liable for negligently failing to warn about the health risks of benzene, which is classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a known carcinogen, and ordered the company to pay $725.5 million in compensatory damages to a former mechanic, Paul Gill, who claimed that his cancer was caused by exposure to benzene in ExxonMobil's petroleum products while working at a Mobil gas station between 1975 and 1980.

[131] The company decided to consolidate its Houston operations into one new campus located in northern Harris County and vacate its offices on 800 Bell St. which it had occupied since 1963.

[130] The new operation complex includes twenty office buildings totaling 3,000,000 square feet (280,000 m2), a wellness center, laboratory, and three parking garages.

[134] As of January 8, 2025[update], the current ExxonMobil board members are:[135] Hooley is presently the lead independent director, having succeeded former Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier upon his retirement in May 2022.