ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation

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ExxonMobil traces its history to the 1999 merger of Exxon and Mobil, two descendants of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil empire.

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ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation is an American oil and gas company and the publicly traded parent of Exxon Mobil Corporation. One of the world’s largest energy companies, ExxonMobil has operations in oil and natural gas production, refining, chemicals, and fuels and lubricants. ExxonMobil traces its history to the 1999 merger of Exxon Corporation and Mobil Corporation, both of which descended from companies that emerged from the Standard Oil empire of John D. Rockefeller and his associates. The company is headquartered in Spring, Texas, and had about 58,000 employees at the end of 2025. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol XOM.

The deal to merge Exxon and Mobil was struck in December 1998 and came amid a wave of consolidation in the petroleum industry as low oil prices and increasing global competition put pressure on producers to cut costs and increase their scale. The merger, completed in 1999 and valued at about $81 billion, reunited two of the largest companies created by the 1911 breakup of Standard Oil.

The agreement called for Exxon shareholders to own about 70% of the combined company, to be headquartered in Irving, Texas. The size of the proposed company prompted extensive antitrust reviews in the United States and Europe. To win U.S. regulatory approval, Exxon and Mobil agreed to divest more than 2,400 gasoline stations and other assets. The merger was completed on November 30, 1999, creating Exxon Mobil Corporation. Exxon’s Chair and Chief Executive Officer Lee Raymond assumed the same roles for the newly combined company.

After the merger, Exxon Mobil focused on integrating the two companies and reducing costs. The company ultimately eliminated about 14,000 jobs and achieved annual pretax savings of $3.8 billion, exceeding the estimates made when the merger was announced. Rex Tillerson succeeded Raymond as chair and CEO on January 1, 2006.

As oil and natural gas prices rose during much of the 2000s, Exxon Mobil’s revenue and profits also climbed, reaching $459.6 billion in revenue and $45.2 billion in net income in 2008. Both fell sharply the following year amid the Great Recession and lower energy prices.

In December 2009, Exxon Mobil agreed to acquire XTO Energy in an all-stock deal valued at about $41 billion, including assumed debt. The acquisition, completed in June 2010, brought with it extensive U.S. natural gas holdings and expertise in extracting shale gas and other unconventional resources.

Following the XTO acquisition, Exxon Mobil expanded its development of shale and other unconventional oil and natural gas resources in the United States. By 2014, with U.S. natural gas prices still relatively low by historical standards, the company was increasingly emphasizing oil-rich areas, particularly the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico and the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana, while continuing to develop natural gas resources elsewhere.

Exxon Mobil continued to develop large projects outside the United States. Production began at the Kearl oil sands project in Canada in 2013, and the Papua New Guinea liquefied natural gas project began operating in 2014.

In May 2015, Exxon Mobil said it had discovered oil at its Liza-1 well in the Stabroek block off the coast of Guyana, where it had been exploring since 2008. Liza-1 was the country’s first significant offshore oil discovery and marked the beginning of what became one of Exxon Mobil’s most important oil-producing regions.

After more than a decade as chair and CEO, Tillerson retired at the end of 2016 and went on to become U.S. secretary of state in the first Trump administration. Darren Woods succeeded him at Exxon Mobil in both roles on January 1, 2017.

After Woods took over in 2017, the company pursued an ambitious investment program aimed at increasing oil and natural gas production. Exxon Mobil expanded its holdings and drilling in the Permian Basin while moving rapidly to develop its discoveries in Guyana. Production from the Liza field began in December 2019, less than five years after the initial discovery, and additional discoveries and development plans established Guyana as a major area of future growth.

The strategy came under increasing pressure as weaker oil and natural gas prices weighed on earnings. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified those problems in 2020, when a collapse in energy demand sent oil prices sharply lower. Exxon Mobil cut planned capital spending, borrowed heavily, and recorded $19.3 billion in after-tax impairments of upstream assets, primarily natural gas properties it no longer planned to develop. The company reported a net loss of $22.4 billion for the year, its first annual loss in decades.

Exxon Mobil faced growing pressure from shareholders over its spending and its response to the energy transition. In 2021, the newly formed hedge fund firm Engine No. 1 launched an activist investor campaign against Exxon Mobil. It nominated four directors, arguing in part that the company had allocated capital poorly and needed to prepare for changes in the energy industry. Three of the nominees won seats on the board in May, with support from several of Exxon Mobil’s largest institutional shareholders.

Exxon Mobil’s financial results rebounded in 2021 as oil and natural gas prices recovered. The company reported net income of $23 billion and reduced its total debt to $47.7 billion from $67.6 billion. It also established its Low Carbon Solutions business, focused initially on carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, and biofuels, while continuing to invest heavily in the Permian Basin and Guyana.

Exxon Mobil reported record net income of $56 billion in 2022 as oil and natural gas prices rose amid recovering demand and disruptions to global energy markets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The company continued to invest in oil and natural gas projects in the Permian Basin and Guyana. In Guyana, production began from Liza Phase 2 in February, and 10 additional discoveries were made in the Stabroek block during the year.

The war in Ukraine also led Exxon Mobil to begin withdrawing from Russia. The company recorded a $3.4 billion after-tax charge related largely to its interest in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project. In October 2022, the Russian government terminated Exxon Mobil’s interest in the project and transferred its operations to a Russian operator.

Exxon Mobil also turned to acquisitions to expand two of its strategic priorities. In 2023, the company acquired Denbury, whose extensive carbon dioxide pipeline network supported its carbon-capture plans. The same year Exxon Mobil agreed to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources, one of the largest producers in the Permian Basin. The Pioneer acquisition was completed in May 2024; Exxon Mobil issued shares valued at $63 billion and assumed $5 billion of debt in the transaction. The acquisition helped boost Exxon Mobil’s oil-equivalent production to 4.3 million in 2024 from 3.7 million barrels a day in 2023.

Guyana meanwhile continued to grow in importance. By 2024, gross production from the first three developments in the Stabroek block exceeded 615,000 barrels of oil a day. In 2025, Exxon Mobil lost an arbitration case over the proposed acquisition of Hess by Chevron (CVX). Hess owned a 30% interest in the Stabroek block, while Exxon Mobil held 45% and served as operator. Exxon Mobil argued that its agreement with Hess gave it the right to buy Hess’s stake before it could pass to Chevron. The arbitration panel disagreed, clearing the way for Chevron to complete its acquisition of Hess and take over its 30% interest.

In 2026, Exxon Mobil reorganized its corporate structure to move its legal domicile to Texas from New Jersey. The company said the move was in keeping with its longstanding presence in Texas and would provide greater certainty under the state’s corporate laws. Shareholders approved the change at the company’s annual meeting, and the reorganization took effect July 1.

A newly formed Texas corporation, ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation, became the publicly traded parent company, while Exxon Mobil Corporation remained incorporated in New Jersey and became its wholly owned subsidiary. ExxonMobil said the holding company structure would provide greater organizational flexibility, including allowing certain assets and contracts to remain with the New Jersey corporation.

Each outstanding share of Exxon Mobil was automatically exchanged for one share of ExxonMobil Holdings, leaving shareholders with the same percentage ownership in the new parent company. ExxonMobil Holdings replaced Exxon Mobil as the company whose shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange, retaining the ticker symbol XOM. The reorganization resulted in no change to the company’s headquarters, operations, management, employees, assets, or liabilities.