Written by?/?Ma Xiaolei

Edited by?/?Wen Sha

Designed by?/?Zhao Haoran

Source?/?Nytimes , Author: Clifford Krauss

In its 135-year history, ExxonMobil has experienced being squeezed out by the government, investment failures and the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill, but even its fate Despite all the misfortunes, the oil giant still made a lot of money.

An ExxonMobil drillship leaves Guyana. The company still planned to drill more oil there and in other countries even as world leaders stepped up efforts to fight climate change

But suddenly, Exxon began a serious decline, and long-dormant short-term Slabs have emerged as a result of the spread of the pandemic and technological shifts in the energy world.

As the world’s largest non-governmental oil and gas producer, ExxonMobil has been one of the most profitable and valuable companies in the United States for decades, but it lost money in the first nine months of this year. 2.4 billion, and the stock price fell by about 35%. In August, Exxon was kicked out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and replaced by software company Salesforce. The change means the baton from Big Oil will be passed to the growing technology industry.

"Is Exxon a survivor?" asked Jennifer Rowland, an energy analyst at Edward Jones. "Of course they are, they have huge global assets, great people, great technical knowledge. But the real question is, can they continue to prosper? There are a lot of people who are skeptical about that now."

< p>Investors are putting increasing pressure on Exxon. Longtime shareholder D.E. Shaw, who recently increased his stake in Exxon, has asked the company to cut costs and improve its environmental record, according to a person familiar with the matter. Another activist investor, Engine No. 1, is pushing for similar reforms with support from the California State Teachers' Retirement System and the Church of England. And on Wednesday, December 9, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said the state’s $226 billion pension fund would sell oil that doesn’t move quickly enough to reduce emissions. and natural gas company stocks.

Energy demand has plummeted this year as leaders, including President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., pledged to take steps to combat climate change. Every oil company is trying. Many utilities, automakers and other companies have pledged to drastically reduce or eliminate fossil fuels, the largest source of greenhouse gases, in favor of wind, solar and electric vehicles.

European companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP have begun to move away from fossil fuels. But Exxon, like most U.S. oil companies, is doubling down on oil and gas and investing relatively little in technologies that could help slow climate change.

Just in November, Exxon reiterated that it planned to gradually increase the production of fossil fuels. The company currently invests billions of dollars to produce oil and natural gas in the Permian Basin across Texas and New Mexico, as well as offshore fields in Guyana, Brazil and Mozambique.

Exxon is persistent in its strategy, even as it admits it made a wrong move before. Exxon said it would write down the value of its natural gas assets, most of which it bought around 2010, by as much as $20 billion. The company will also lay off about 14,000 employees, or 15% of its total headcount, over the next year or so in an effort to cut costs and maintain the dividend it has increased annually for nearly four decades.

But if this crisis is enough to threaten the company's survival, Exxon executives have not acknowledged it. "

"Despite the current volatility and near-term uncertainty, the long-term fundamentals driving our business remain strong. "Darren W. Woods, who has served as the company's chairman and CEO since 2017, said at a recent shareholder meeting.

Exxon is in the oil world An almost insular company, its rigid corporate culture has caused it to miss out on the key changes that could be made since John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in the late 19th century. Exxon Mobil refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, fossil fuel production for the foreseeable future. And processing will remain the company's backbone

Since Rockefeller was an accountant, digital computing is deeply engraved in Exxon's DNA. Exxon's top management is mainly composed of engineers, almost all of whom are from the company. Working their way up to executive positions, the entire senior team has demonstrated a determination to overcome every foreseeable obstacle, such as the OPEC oil embargo, war and government sanctions.

As a company that often operates in dangerous or inhospitable locations, this confidence may be necessary.

Current CEO Woods, a trained electrical engineer and 28-year Exxon employee, speaks with the same calm confidence as his more high-profile predecessors. But he is one of the more low-key Exxon CEOs, unlike Lee R. Raymond, who in the 1990s and early 2000s railed against concerns about climate change and oil depletion. It’s unfounded; it’s not like Rex W. Tillerson was President Trump’s first Secretary of State.

While both men were dominant figures in the industry, they left Woods with a legacy of problems that were briefly overshadowed by rising oil and gas prices.

While Raymond’s public questioning of climate change has damaged the company’s reputation, Tillerson has been slow to take advantage of shale drilling, which has boosted the U.S. oil industry. His dealings with Russia and Iraq cost the company heavy losses. In 2009, he bought XTO for more than $30 billion to gain access to fracking technology and precious natural gas fields just as natural gas prices were at their peak. As commodity prices fell in the years that followed, the company lost money and withdrew much of its investment in November.

"Darren Woods inherited a company that made huge bets in recent years that didn't pan out." Fadel Gait, a retired Wall Street analyst Gheit, who was a research and development engineer at Mobil before its merger with Exxon in 1999.

“Exxon Mobil is like a big cruise ship,” he added. “You can’t change course overnight. They can weather the storm, but they won’t go very far. They ultimately had to pivot to stay relevant." Raymond declined to comment, and Tillerson did not respond to a request for comment. Exxon responded to questions largely through previous public statements from Woods and the company.

Company spokesman Casey Norton said that in addition to bringing potential resources, the acquisition of XTO also brought personnel and technology to help the company obtain shale oil fields in the Permian Basin. success.

In his first few years on the job, Woods followed Tillerson's broad strategy of borrowing and investing heavily to expand production. The pandemic forced Woods to change course. The company now plans to spend a third less on exploration and production by 2025 than originally planned.

However, although the changes made by Exxon are great in absolute terms, compared with European oil companies, they can only be regarded as "patches." British Petroleum (BP) announced that it will increase investment in low-emissions businesses tenfold over the next ten years to US$5 billion per year, while reducing oil and gas production by 40%. Royal Dutch Shell, France's Total SA and other European companies are taking similar action at varying speeds.

In the United States, the only major oil company that comes close to "European-style" goals is Occidental Petroleum. The company recently committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions from its operations by 2040 and net zero fuel use by 2050. It is building a plant in Texas that will capture carbon dioxide from the air and use it to push crude oil out of the ground while leaving the greenhouse gas permanently underground.

“We have entered the energy transition era from the shale era, so the strategic divergence of various companies is relatively large, which is the largest in modern times.” Energy historian, "The New Territory: Energy, Climate and Daniel Yergin, author of The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations, said, “The biggest debate now is that peak oil will be in the 2020s. Or the 2030s or 2050s?”

Exxon executives said they have recognized the existence and necessity of the energy transition. But they also declared that it made no sense for Exxon to get into the solar or wind business. Instead, the company is investing in breakthrough technologies, including one project using algae to produce fuel for trucks and planes. Exxon has been talking about the project for years but has yet to start commercial production.

The Permian Basin is one of the world's largest oil and gas fields, and Exxon is investing billions of dollars there

Exxon's refineries could one day also become major producers of hydrogen Producers and many experts believe hydrogen can play an important role in reducing emissions. The company is betting on carbon capture and storage technology, with one project channeling carbon emitted from industrial operations into a fuel cell that can generate electricity, producing more power while reducing emissions.

In a message to employees in October, Woods said, "Breakthroughs in these areas are critical to reducing emissions and making a meaningful contribution to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, the 2016 global climate agreement. .

"

Energy experts say Exxon has the potential to come up with new uses for carbon dioxide, such as strengthening concrete or making carbon fiber that could replace steel and other materials.

" If Exxon Once Sen and other major oil industry players crack these puzzles, the entire conversation about hydrocarbons will change. "This process will be very slow in the early stages," said Kenneth B. Medlock III, senior director of the Energy Research Center at Rice University. Think of the same thing with wind and solar power. ”

Significant increases in oil and natural gas prices could offset some of Exxon’s concerns, at least in the short term. Oil prices have climbed in recent weeks on optimism about a coronavirus vaccine, and Exxon Sen's stock price has also risen.

Vijay Swarup, Exxon's vice president for research and development, said in a recent interview that the company understands that it needs to reduce emissions. , and are developing better fuels, lubricants and plastics.

“But on the way to this goal, we cannot stop supplying affordable, scalable energy. "Swarup said.

But former BP CEO John Browne said it was unclear whether Exxon and other major U.S. companies would adequately prepare for a low-carbon future. Transformation.

“They might as well take it one step at a time and say, ‘Let’s see what happens in the long term’. "It's a pretty risky strategy these days," he said. ”

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.