ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation ( EK-son MOH-bəl) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the company was formed in 1999, with the merger of Exxon and Mobil. It is vertically integrated across the entire oil and gas industry, as well as within its chemicals division, which produces plastic, synthetic rubber, and other chemical products. As the largest U.S.-based oil and gas company, ExxonMobil is the eighth-largest company by revenue in the U.S. and 13th-largest in the world. It is also the largest investor-owned oil company in the world.
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. The company is responsible for many oil spills, the largest and most notable of which was the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, considered to be one of the world's worst oil spills in terms of environmental damage. The company has also been accused of human rights violations and exerting excessive influence on American foreign policy and developing countries.
In 2024, ExxonMobil was responsible for 610 Mt of CO2 emissions, which was 1.58% of global CO2 emissions.
Originally, Vacuum Oil Company was founded in 1866. It later was acquired by Standard Oil in 1879 and divested from Standard in 1911 with Standard Oil's legally-mandated breakup. In 1931 Vacuum Oil merged with Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony), and the combined company became later known as Mobil.
After the 1911 breakup, Standard Oil continued to exist through its New Jersey subsidiary (Jersey Standard), and retained its name in much of the eastern United States. Jersey Standard grew by acquiring Humble Oil in the 1930s and became the dominant oil company on the world stage. The company's lack of ownership over the Standard Oil name across the United States, however, prompted a name change to unify all of its brands under one name, choosing Exxon in 1972 instead of continuing to use the three distinct brands Esso, Enco, and Humble Oil.
In 1998, the two companies agreed to merge and form ExxonMobil, with the deal closing on November 30, 1999. The new company's name containing both of the trade names of its immediate predecessors. However, the structure of the merger provided that Exxon was the surviving company and bought Mobil, rather than a new company being created. Following the merger, Exxon's NYSE ticker symbol was changed from "XON" to "XOM".
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government-owned company in the international energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
ExxonMobil is vertically integrated into a number of global operating divisions. These divisions are grouped into three categories for reference purposes, though the company also has several standalone divisions, such as Coal & Minerals. It also owns hundreds of smaller subsidiaries such as XTO Energy and SeaRiver Maritime. ExxonMobil also has a majority ownership stake in Imperial Oil.
Upstream (oil exploration, extraction, shipping, and wholesale operations)
Product Solutions (downstream, chemical)
The upstream division makes up the majority of ExxonMobil's revenue, accounting for approximately 70% of it. At the end of 2025, ExxonMobil had 19.3 billion oil-equivalent barrels of proved reserves. In the United States, ExxonMobil's petroleum exploration and production activities are concentrated in the Permian Basin, Bakken Formation, Woodford Shale, Caney Shale, and the Gulf of Mexico. ExxonMobil also has gas developments in the regions of Marcellus Shale, Utica Shale, Haynesville Shale, Barnett Shale, and Fayetteville Shale. All natural gas activities are conducted by its subsidiary, XTO Energy. As of December 31, 2014, ExxonMobil owned 14.6 million acres (59,000 km2) in the United States, of which 1.7 million acres (6,900 km2) were offshore, 1.5 million acres (6,100 km2) of which were in the Gulf of Mexico. In California, it has a joint venture called Aera Energy LLC with Shell Oil. In Canada, the company holds 5.4 million acres (22,000 km2), including 1 million acres (4,000 km2) offshore and 0.7 million acres (2,800 km2) of the Kearl Oil Sands Project.
In Argentina, ExxonMobil holds 0.9 million acres (3,600 km2) and 4.9 million acres (20,000 km2) in Germany. In the Netherlands ExxonMobil owns 1.5 million acres (6,100 km2), in Norway it owns 0.4 million acres (1,600 km2) offshore, and the United Kingdom 0.6 million acres (2,400 km2) offshore. In Africa, upstream operations are concentrated in Angola, where it owns 0.4 million acres (1,600 km2) offshore, Chad where it owns 46,000 acres (19,000 ha), Equatorial Guinea, where it owns 0.1 million acres (400 km2) offshore, and Nigeria, where it owns 0.8 million acres (3,200 km2) offshore. In addition, ExxonMobil plans to start exploration activities off the coast of Liberia and the Ivory Coast. ExxonMobil previously had exploration activities in Madagascar, but ended these operations due to unsatisfactory results.
In Asia, it holds 9,000 acres (3,600 ha) in Azerbaijan, 1.7 million acres (6,900 km2) in Indonesia, of which 1.3 million acres (5,300 km2) are offshore, 0.7 million acres (2,800 km2) in Iraq, 0.3 million acres (1,200 km2) in Kazakhstan, 0.2 million acres (810 km2) in Malaysia, 65,000 acres (26,000 ha) in Qatar, 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) in Yemen, 21,000 acres (8,500 ha) in Thailand, and 81,000 acres (33,000 ha) in the United Arab Emirates.
ExxonMobil exited the West Qurna 1 oilfield in January 2024, officially ending all energy sector operations in Iraq. The share is now owned by PetroChina and Pertamina.
In March 2024, ExxonMobil discovered oil at the Stabroek block off the coast of Guyana using a drillship. By the end of 2027, it plans to have 6 FPSOs at the block. 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.
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. Together with Rosneft, it has developed 63.6 million acres (257,000 km2) in Russia, including the East-Prinovozemelsky field. After Russia's 2022 invasion began, though, ExxonMobil announced it was fully pulling out of both Russia and Sakhalin-I, and launched a lawsuit against Russia's federal government on August 30.
In Australia, ExxonMobil held 1.7 million acres (6,900 km2), including 1.6 million acres (6,500 km2) offshore. It also operates the Longford Gas Conditioning Plant, and participates in the development of Gorgon LNG project.
In Papua New Guinea, it holds 1.1 million acres (4,500 km2), including the PNG Gas project.