The Lamp - ExxonMobil

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The Lamp
at 90 years
Everyday products make big difference
Papua New Guinea LNG
project plans move ahead
PLUS
African startups
Summer science camps
ExxonMobil MasterCard
Viewpoint:
OFC
Tapping a powerful resource
2008 – Number 3

Viewpoint
1
Tapping a powerful resource
Now more than ever, it is
important for Americans to
use energy efficiently.
Energy efficiency does not
mean doing less; it means
using energy more wisely
and taking advantage of
energy-saving technologies.
All Americans have a role in
improving energy efficiency
Indexed
105
100
Refining Energy Intensity
Source: Solomon
*2007 Estimated – Solomon survey
only prepared in even years
At ExxonMobil, we have systematically
worked to improve efficiency at our facilities here
in the United States and around the world.
Many may not realize, but it takes a lot of
energy to produce the world’s energy. So if
ExxonMobil can find ways to reduce our energy
costs, it can benefit our customers and our shareholders.
It also benefits the environment; lowering
energy usage reduces greenhouse-gas emissions.
Last year, ExxonMobil achieved its best-ever
energy-efficiency performance in our refining and
chemicals businesses.
Since 2004, we have invested more than
$1.5 billion in activities that improve energy efficiency
and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
ExxonMobil is on track to improve energy
efficiency in our refining and chemicals operations
by at least 10 percent between 2002 and 2012.
Over the past few years, we have improved the
energy efficiency of these businesses at a rate two
to three times faster than the industry average.
95
90
'02
'04
'06
Industry
ExxonMobil
'07*
Our industry leadership in
the application of cogeneration
technologies accounts for much of
this success. With cogeneration,
we can capture heat that would
otherwise be lost when power is
generated, and then reuse that
heat for manufacturing and pro-
duction. ExxonMobil has interests in about 100
cogeneration facilities in more than 30 locations
worldwide, with a combined power generation
capacity of 4.5 gigawatts last year.
Through efficiency actions taken in 2006
and 2007, we reduced greenhouse-gas emissions
by about 5 million metric tons in 2007,
equivalent to removing about one million cars
from roads in the United States. All Americans
have a stake in finding ways to meet growing
energy demands and reduce high prices. And
each of us has a role.
To help power the U.S. economy forward,
ExxonMobil is tapping new resources, including
energy efficiency. In the next few years, we
plan on spending at least $500 million on additional
initiatives to improve energy efficiency and
reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. In our next
installment in this series, we will suggest ways
American consumers can become more energy
efficient also.

Rex W. Tillerson
Chairman and CEO
Mark W. Albers
Senior Vice President
Michael J. Dolan
Senior Vice President
Donald D. Humphreys
Senior Vice President
Kenneth P. Cohen
Vice President-Public Affairs
David S. Rosenthal
Vice President-Investor Relations and Secretary
Bob Davis
Editor
Patrick Gabriel
GCG
Art Director
Len Shelton
Photography Coordinator
Cynthia Solomon
Production Coordinator
Frances Bruscino
Distribution Coordinator
Please address all Lamp correspondence,
including requests to reproduce any portion
of the magazine, to the editor at Exxon Mobil
Corporation, 5959 Las Colinas Blvd., Irving,
TX 75039-2298.
In this issue
5 17 7
1
Viewpoint
Tapping a powerful resource
3
Safer and sounder
Innovations in marine seismic surveys
5
Papua New Guinea project
Gas agreement is signed
7
Career inspiration
from a crawl space
Senior Vice President Mike Dolan
discusses issues affecting consumers
Upfront
Last year, Exxon Mobil Corporation
commemorated its 125-year
anniversary. 2008 brings another
milestone: 90 years of continuous
publication of The Lamp. Our
cover story on page 11 describes
the genesis of this venerable
magazine, and how the news
and achievements of ExxonMobil
are reaching more than 1 million
shareholders and other readers
every quarter.
Our company’s success is indisputably
due to the quality of our
employees, our steadfast objective
to provide reliable energy for a
changing world and our commitment
to technological innovation.
This focus on technology – from
breakthroughs in exploration, drilling,
project development and pro-
11
The Lamp’s 90th year
Enduring publication has wide appeal
13
West Africa update
More new energy from
Nigeria and Angola
17
Camps for kids
Unique approach to math
and science education
19
Taking a different track
Meet Edward E. Whitacre Jr.,
ExxonMobil’s newest director
21
Bringing new gas
resources to market
Innovative technology
could tap new supplies
24
Helping protect
tomorrow, today
Sustainable products span
roadways and supermarkets
90 years of The Lamp
The magazine begun by
Standard Oil (New Jersey)
President Walter Teagle in 1918
has conveyed the news of the
corporation for nine decades.
Cover photo by Doug Mangold
duction activities, improvements
in refining and chemical plant
processes, to the manufacturing
of more fuel-efficient and environmentally
beneficial products – can
be found throughout ExxonMobil.
Several articles in this issue illustrate
this dedicated drive.
For example, technology is
improving the way seismic surveys
are conducted at sea, benefiting
the environment. “Safer
and sounder” on page 3 tells
how it’s being done.
Another technology breakthrough
could open new naturalgas
resources around the world,
bringing more energy supplies to
consumers while cutting the cost
of carbon capture and storage.
See page 21.
Technical advances at
ExxonMobil are helping reduce
energy and raw material use, lower
transportation costs, make everyday
items more recyclable and
boost fuel efficiency for vehicles
(page 24).
Plus, this issue includes a profile
and interview with Mike Dolan,
the corporation’s new senior vice
president, who discusses key
issues affecting ExxonMobil’s
refining and chemicals businesses.
We hope you enjoy this issue
of The Lamp.
Bob Davis
Editor
27
Panorama
Business highlights
from around the world
30
ExxonMobil quarterly
financial summary
2
11

3
Safer and sounder
Innovations in marine seismic
surveys benefit the environment.
Exploring for the oil and gas
needed to meet the world’s rising
energy demands requires a
broad array of scientific expertise
and technology. These elements
are essential to a sophisticated
process for finding and
developing energy resources.
ExxonMobil is constantly finetuning
every aspect of that
process to improve efficiency,
quality of information and environmental
soundness.
One such improvement is in
the way ExxonMobil explores
areas beneath the earth’s surface,
searching for formations
that may contain oil and gas.
Before the first well is drilled, a
team of geoscientists conducts
extensive studies, looking for
Story by Bill Corporon Photos courtesy of WesternGeco
geologic prospects that could
yield commercial quantities of
hydrocarbons.
When a promising area is
identified, the next step is to
conduct a seismic survey, a process
invented by ExxonMobil in
the 1960s. This entails sending
sound waves into the earth, then
measuring the returning signals.
Variations in the signals that are
reflected back from geologic layers
help scientists visualize the
subsurface rock formations.
For example, sophisticated
three-dimensional (3-D) seismic
imaging generates massive
amounts of data that produce
multidimensional representations
of subsurface formations.
Scientists then construct a
detailed virtual “image.” This
helps them identify areas where
commercial quantities of oil and
natural gas may have accumulated.
Their analysis guides the
decision to drill an exploratory
well and where to position it.
On land and sea
Seismic surveys are conducted
both on land and at sea. The
principles are the same for both
operating environments.
However, marine surveys
require generating sound waves
through significant water depths
and then into the earth’s surface.
These sound waves are
reflected back from subsurface
rock layers and recorded on
“streamers” that are towed

ehind a marine seismic vessel
at a consistent depth.
“Streamers” are long tubes
containing hydrophones that
convert pressure differences into
electrical signals, and a fluid to
maintain buoyancy. A typical
streamer is 3 to 4 inches in
diameter and covered with a
polymer skin about one-tenth of
an inch thick. They are typically
as long as 9,000 to 30,000 feet.
The seismic vessel may tow
one streamer or up to 10 to 12
streamers, depending on the
kind of seismic work being done.
ExxonMobil Exploration
Company Technical Vice President
Rick Weber points out that this
raises some unique issues.
“Acquiring seismic data at
sea presents its own set of challenges,”
says Weber. “The equipment
can encounter commercial
fishing gear, debris and, of
course, ocean currents. In addition,
sharks have been known to
mistake the streamers for lunch.”
Above: Dennison Refamonte (left)
and Edmarques Costa of WesternGeco
prepare to deploy solid streamers for
the seismic survey in the Canadian
Beaufort Sea. The new streamers provide
environmental benefits compared
to fluid-filled types.
At left: WesternGeco’s Western Patriot
en route to the Canadian Beaufort Sea,
where the vessel conducted a 3-D
marine seismic survey covering some
1,000 square miles this summer.
To ensure accurate readings,
the streamers must be flexible,
buoyant and maintained at a
consistent water depth, usually
about 15 to 30 feet. Traditionally,
this has been achieved by filling
the streamers with fluid, usually
a form of light diesel fuel. The
fluid helps provide the necessary
buoyancy and provides coupling
for the hydrophones.
Innovations
While fluid streamers have been
effective, ExxonMobil has sought
to make wider use of other
options. The company needed
streamers that provided the same
buoyancy, flexibility and hydrophone
sensitivity as fluid-filled
devices, but with increased resistance
to tears and other damage
that might cause fluid leaks.
ExxonMobil’s marine seismic
work is carried out by contractors
with world-class experience
and global operations.
ExxonMobil’s senior manage-
When a marine seismic survey
is conducted, sound waves are
recorded on “streamers” towed
behind the vessel to provide 3-D
images of the subsurface rock.
Illustration by Pat Gabriel
ment has met with the company’s
key contractors to discuss the
wider use of two alternatives to
fluid-filled streamers.
One is a “solid streamer.” It’s
filled with high-density polyurethane
foam and a small quantity
of light diesel around the hydrophones.
The other is filled with gel. The
gel consists of a nonhazardous,
petroleum-based synthetic urethane
polymer.
The company’s contractors
share ExxonMobil’s goal to minimize
the environmental impact of
seismic surveys by using solid and
gel streamers. Many had already
been making the conversion.
For example, the French company
CGGVeritas, which has the
industry’s largest fleet of 20 seismic
vessels, has converted 12 vessels
to solid streamers. They plan to
convert approximately 90 percent
of their entire fleet by 2010.
Norway-based PGS plans to
have 17 vessels in its fleet by
2009, and all will be equipped with
solid and gel streamers.
WesternGeco, the surface seismic
company of Schlumberger,
has acquired two large 3-D projects
for ExxonMobil this year in
New Zealand and in the Canadian
Beaufort Sea using solid streamers.
“The cooperation we’ve received
from our contractors has been
essential and gratifying,” says Rick
Weber. “And it’s paying off. Today
about 45 percent of our seismic
fleet uses solid or gel streamers.
We expect that to rise to 70 percent
in 2009. This shows what we
can accomplish when all the parties
work together to achieve an
important goal with tangible environmental
benefits.” the Lamp
4

5
Papua New Guinea
LNG project plans move ahead
A proposed project in the South-
ern Highlands and Western
Provinces of PNG could bring
new supplies of liquefied natural
gas (LNG) to world markets by
the next decade.
The initial development envisions
the construction of the
960-million-cubic-feet-a-day
gas-conditioning plant and a gas
pipeline to a liquefaction plant to
be built on the Gulf of Papua near
Port Moresby, the nation’s capital.
The LNG plant would produce 6
million metric tons a year of LNG
for shipment to international markets.
The gas is to be transported
to the plant by a 440-mile pipeline
(250 miles subsea). Liquids
recovered at the existing Hides
gas plant would be combined
with crude oil from the oil operations
and transported through
the existing oil export system to
the Kumul platform, an offshore
tanker loading facility.
Earlier this year ExxonMobil
and the project joint venturers
signed commercial agreements
naming ExxonMobil affiliate Esso
Highlands as operator and sole
marketing representative for the
joint venture. They also signed
a gas agreement with the PNG
State establishing the legal and
fiscal framework for this significant
development.
“ExxonMobil is pleased to have
Story by Bob Davis
Important new energy supplies could be produced from the remote
highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) under a plan currently being
developed by ExxonMobil and its joint-venture participants.
completed these key agreements
and to move this project to its
next stage,” says Peter Graham,
venture manager, ExxonMobil
Development Company.
Engineering and design
That next stage involves what
are called front-end engineering
and design (FEED) activities. This
includes engineering and design,
execution planning, project
financing, gas marketing, and all
of the regulatory and permitting
work, including community and
landowner consultation.
“We are expecting a final
funding decision late next year,”
says Graham. “We look forward
to working with the PNG government
and our joint-venture
participants to maximize the
value of the resource and provide
long-term, sustainable benefits
to the community.”
Those benefits are expected
to be substantial. An analysis
by economists at ACIL Tasman
suggested the project could
transform the economy of PNG,
potentially doubling its gross
national product, boosting
government revenue, providing
royalty payments to landowners
and creating jobs during both
the construction and operational
phases. With projected total
direct cash flows of more than
Photo by Isaac Tauno
Sam Koyama, ExxonMobil’s land and
community affairs manager, addresses
a community meeting at Boera village
near the proposed site of the gas
liquefaction plant. Community and
landowner consultation is an important
part of project activities.

A young Huli boy in ceremonial dress continues the culture
and traditions of his tribe, the predominant landowners from
the Hides gas-field area. PNG is one of the most culturally
diverse countries in the world, and the PNG LNG project area
alone encompasses 13 distinct language groups.
$30 billion to the PNG government
and landowners during
the 30-year life of the project,
the development would be the
largest private-sector investment
ever undertaken in Papua
New Guinea.
National content initiatives
The project would involve
a national content plan that
includes work force training for
project construction and ongoing
operations; purchasing local
goods and services where possible;
building local supplier proficiency,
including an improved
safety focus; and assisting the
development of the project area
communities through contributions
to health, education and
agriculture projects.
Current participating interests
in the PNG LNG project are
ExxonMobil (Esso Highlands
Limited as oper-
ator) 41.5 percent,
Oil Search
34.0 percent,
Photo by Anna Schulze
To learn more
pnglng.com
Santos 17.7 percent, AGL 3.6
percent, Nippon Oil 1.8 percent,
Mineral Resources Development
Company 1.2 percent and Eda
Oil 0.2 percent. The PNG State
will join as an equity participant
at financial close. the Lamp
Papua New Guinea at a glance
Geography: 178,711 square miles, about the size of California;
terrain is mostly mountains with coastal lowlands and foothills.
Climate: Tropical, with two distinct monsoon seasons (Dec.-
March and May-Oct.).
Population (2007): 6.7 million, with an average annual growth
rate of 1.8 percent.
People: The indigenous population is one of the most ethnically
diverse in the world, attributable to the isolation created by the
mountainous terrain. More than 700 unrelated live languages are
spoken, but the official languages are English, Melanesian Pidgin
and Hiri Motu. The highland regions of the country are home to
40 percent of the population.
Government: Constitutional parliamentary democracy.
Natural resources: Gold, copper ore, crude oil, natural gas, lumber,
fish, cocoa, coffee, tea, palm oil, copra oil and rubber.
Juha wellheads
elevation – 3,117 feet
Rich gas line
Juha
production facility
250 mcfd
Kutubu
oil facility
(existing)
Australia
•Wewak
Kopi
•
Oil export
platform
(existing)
Subsea
gas line
250 miles
Hides wellheads
elevation – 5,577 to 9,186 feet
Liquid line
Papua New Guinea
•Lae
LNG plant
•
Port Moresby
Liquids line
Gas line
Hides gasconditioning
plant
960 mcfd Angore
wellheads
Liquids line to Kutubu
Gas line to Kopi
Illustration by Pat Gabriel
6

Can crowding into dark crawl
spaces in attics and under
houses to pull electrical wiring be
inspirational? New ExxonMobil
Senior Vice President Mike Dolan
believes it can.
“My dad was a plant maintenance
electrician,” says Dolan.
“On weekends while I was in
high school, he took on various
electrical jobs around our
hometown of North Attleboro,
Massachusetts, and I went along
to help. If someone had to crawl
under a house to pull wire, that
would be me. If someone had
to crawl into an attic to pull wire,
that would be me.
“I’m not sure how many crawl
spaces I managed to squeeze
into over four or five years. But
by the time I was ready for college,
I had learned a great deal
about how things work from a
mechanical perspective, and I
thought about pursuing a career
in engineering.”
Dolan initially wanted to
become an electrical engineer
because of the knowledge he had
developed in assisting his dad.
“But that was toward the end
of the Vietnam War,” he recalls,
“and a lot of electrical engineers
in defense-related jobs were
being laid off. After I checked
with a few people, I was told
chemical engineers never
get laid off. Even if they were
7
Career inspiration
from a crawl space
Profile by Mike Long Photography by Jim Reisch
stretching the truth, I didn’t need
a lot of convincing.”
An indirect path to Mobil
Dolan graduated from Worcester
Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in
Worcester, Massachusetts, in
1975 with a degree in chemical
engineering, and accepted a job
with the global engineering firm
of UOP.
“I gained a lot of experience
with technology that happened
to be of interest to Mobil. After a
five-year ‘delay,’ Mobil hired me
in 1980 to work at its Paulsboro,
New Jersey, research lab to help
advance new processing technology,
including the startup of new
fluid catalytic-cracking units.”
From Australia
to Saudi Arabia
Dolan worked in refining for
13 years in both engineering
and management. He cites his
two years as a member of the
leadership team at the Adelaide
Refinery in Australia as probably
the most satisfying.
“It was an outstanding opportunity
early in my career. I learned
how to manage and lead people
in a very different, unionized environment
and also had to look
beyond the refinery itself. As a
key contributor to the local economy,
the refinery was the ‘big fish
in a little pond’ and received a lot
New Senior Vice President Mike Dolan has seen a lot of the
world in his 33-year career. And every step of the way, some
sage advice that his dad had for him early in life has continued
to serve him, his family and fellow employees quite well.
of community interest.”
Dolan spent most of the next
15 years in petrochemicals, initially
leading the aromatics, olefins
and polyethylene businesses
before being promoted to vice
president and general manager
for the Americas for Mobil
Chemical. After the merger, he
moved to Brussels as ExxonMobil
Chemical’s regional director for
the Middle East and Africa.
In 2001, after ExxonMobil
accepted an invitation to bid on
a major natural gas development
package in Saudi Arabia,
Dolan moved to the capital city
of Riyadh as executive vice president
of ExxonMobil Saudi Arabia.
“It was primarily an upstream
venture but also offered new
petrochemical-manufacturing
opportunities. While I brought my
chemical and downstream expertise
to the project team, I learned a lot
about the upstream. Of course, after
September 11, we had much to do
in terms of keeping ahead of the
changes that were occurring.”
After a brief return to refining in
2003 as deputy to the president
of ExxonMobil Refining & Supply,
Dolan was named president of
ExxonMobil Chemical Company
in 2004.
Dad was right
His promotion to the Exxon Mobil
Corporation Management Commit-
tee as a senior vice president in April
2008 proved a happy surprise.
“Looking back, my career goals
Global recognition for historic WPI
Mike Dolan is proud to call the second-oldest engineering
school in the United States his alma mater.
Founded in 1865, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in
Worcester, Massachusetts, began as a free institute to teach
New England farm boys the sciences needed to support the
region’s growing industrialization.
Dolan, who serves as a WPI trustee, notes the school has
become globally recognized for its project-focused curriculum
in which students work in teams off campus to solve real-world
problems. About half of these projects are outside the United
States. WPI sends more engineering and science students overseas
than any other U.S. university.

were simple. I just wanted to be
an engineer, see the world and
do the best job I could do. If I had
had a career plan, advancing this
far would not have seemed to be
a reasonable expectation.”
Dolan attributes his successful
career partly to having never said
“no” to new opportunities.
He also cites Mike Ramage,
retired president of ExxonMobil
Research and Engineering, and
Ray McGowan, retired executive
vice president of ExxonMobil
Chemical, as excellent management
role models.
“They brought a lot of energy to
their work and cared deeply about
their employees. Both trusted me
with tremendous assignments at a
fairly young age.”
But there are two other mentors
whose influence has been significant
from the day he drew his first
breath.
“My mom and dad gave their
children their love and support
and instilled in us the value of hard
work. And even when I was crawling
under houses back in Attleboro,
my dad taught me every day that
if you come to work to work, are
considerate of those around you
and strive to make a contribution
wherever you can, then things will
go well. He was right.” the Lamp
Senior Vice President Mike
Dolan stewards ExxonMobil’s
refining, supply and chemical
businesses as well as company
interests in China, Japan,
Singapore, France, Belgium, the
Netherlands and Luxembourg.
8

9
The outlook for
refining and chemicals
What key challenges are
facing ExxonMobil and the
global refining industry?
Challenges are nothing new to
the refining business – we have
been working for decades to
provide reliable, affordable energy
to consumers around the world.
The primary challenge facing
the industry is economically
meeting the growing demand
for energy. And, it’s not just that
demand is increasing, but the
product needs are changing as
well. Gasoline demand in mature
markets such as North America,
Japan and Europe is decreasing,
while global demand for diesel is
strong. What this means for refiners
is that we need to find ways
of using our equipment and supply
systems to meet the shifting
demand as efficiently as possible.
Interview by Mike Long Photography by Jim Reisch
As the ExxonMobil Management Committee’s newest
member, Senior Vice President Mike Dolan has stewardship
responsibilities for a wide range of businesses and departments
as well as in several countries. Key among them are
ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Company and ExxonMobil
Chemical Company. In this interview, Dolan highlights
issues impacting the refining and chemical businesses.
At the same time, the crude
we use to make our products is
changing as new supplies enter
the market. We continue to find
innovative ways to refine these
often difficult-to-process crudes
to maximize our raw material
flexibility.
The industry is also facing
ongoing changes to productquality
specifications. New
regulations often require major
capital investments that ultimately
increase the cost of producing
fuels. Our challenge is to develop
and implement economic ways to
meet the new requirements more
efficiently than our competition.
What are the implications
of these trends?
The refining industry will need
to adjust in order to meet both
demand growth in Asia and the
shifting demand in mature markets.
At the same time, refiners
must make significant capital
investments in many markets to
produce lower-emissions fuels.
Add to this the expectation
that refining margins will return
to historically lower levels, and
this could mean some refiners
may have to make some tough
economic decisions. However,
given our competitive strengths,
we expect not only to survive,
but to do well.
How is ExxonMobil
prepared for this highly
competitive environment?
ExxonMobil has been in the
refining business for a long time.
One of our great strengths is
that our approach to the business
has not changed, regardless
of industry conditions.
The clearest example is our
consistent focus on operational
excellence. Our organization
works hard to continuously
improve all aspects of our operations
to keep our refineries running
safely, reliably and at peak
efficiency.
Technology also plays a critical
role in our competitive position,
and we’ve demonstrated a consistent
commitment to research
and development. We can deploy
our own internally developed
technology when new challenges
arise, and this is a capability that
many of our competitors simply
don’t have. New technologies
have allowed us to diversify the
kinds of crude we can use, optimize
the yields of higher-value
products and improve the energy
efficiency of our refineries and
chemical plants.

ExxonMobil Refining has also
continued to invest in projects –
not only to meet new regulatory
requirements, but also to lower
operating costs and enhance
yields and capacity. Our extensive
capital project management
experience allows us to
implement these projects more
efficiently than others.
Of course, none of this would
be possible without our exceptionally
talented work force. Our
people create a real and sustainable
source of competitive
advantage.
Please share your perspectives
regarding higher
gasoline prices and their
impact on consumers.
No one likes spending $70 or
more to fill up his or her car.
Through our own personal expe-
riences and through those of our
family members and friends, we
understand that people are struggling
to fit these additional costs
into family budgets.
Demand has grown along with
the economic progress of many
developing countries, especially in
Asia. Progress is good, but it has
contributed to the tightening of fuel
supplies. While we have no control
over the markets, ExxonMobil can
do its part to address this problem
by adding more supply. To do this,
we need greater access to more
prospective areas around the
world, including acreage off the
U.S. East, West and Gulf coasts.
ExxonMobil has the industryleading
technology to develop
resources to their fullest potential
and at the lowest cost. We also
have technology that is superior
to what was available 30 to 40
years ago for developing these
resources with utmost care
for the environment. If allowed
greater access, we could over
time help bring supply and
demand into better balance so
that consumers could see an
impact at the pump.
What are the primary challenges
facing ExxonMobil’s
chemical business and how
is the company responding?
There are three areas where
we spend a lot of our research
dollars in constant pursuit of
improvements – advantaged
feedstocks, process efficiency
and product differentiation. All
three areas present challenges,
but the most important is feedstock.
You are always looking
for opportunities to increase
production with lower-cost feeds.
Successfully doing that will generate
the most economic return.
One area where we have done
a great job is the integration of
our world-scale refineries (sources
of feedstock) and our world-scale
chemical plants (users of feedstock)
and determining how to
upgrade each hydrocarbon molecule
to obtain the highest value.
No one does it better. We can
take refinery streams that other
companies may be unable to use
and convert them into highervalue
chemical products.
We have done a great job at
maximizing the use of refinery
streams through new technology
and molecule management. But,
how do you get more advantaged
feedstocks, especially in
the growing Asian market, which
is not feedstock rich? We think
the answer may lie in developing
new technology to generate feedstocks
from lighter hydrocarbons,
such as natural gas, to very heavy
materials such as crude oil and
even perhaps from coal. That
continues to be a major focus in
our research program.
What message would
you like to leave with
shareholders regarding
the future of ExxonMobil’s
chemical business?
ExxonMobil Chemical is one of
the most profitable chemical companies
in the world. Our return on
capital employed is currently more
than 10 percent higher than that
of our closest competitor.
We have experienced some
very good margins, but the business
is cyclical, and margins go
up and down. We have gotten
to where we are today because
we have a long-term strategy and
have stayed true to that strategy,
making smart decisions decade
after decade. Our chemical
employees understand that they
owe their success to the whole
line of people who over the past
40 years or so came to work and
did the right things every day. That
is a heritage we all take seriously.
For many of the projects and
initiatives we undertake today,
we really won’t see the full benefit
for five, 10 or even 15 years.
But I think it is important to all of
our people and to our shareholders
that we are contributing to
the long-term success just like
those who came before us.
the Lamp
10

2008 marks 90th year
for The Lamp publication
In 1918, the strains of growth
and rapid change were being
felt throughout Standard Oil
Company (New Jersey).
The company’s assets had
nearly doubled to $700 million
in six years, mainly due to an
increased focus on building its
oil-supply base in the United
States and overseas. With the
naming of Walter Teagle as president
in 1917, the company’s
expansion had accelerated.
Meanwhile, as the “war to
end all wars” raged on, Jersey
Standard continued to run its production,
refining and transportation
operations at full throttle. The
effort eventually would provide
one-fourth of the total petroleum
requirements of the United States
and its allies in World War I.
Despite the heightened activity,
Jersey Standard managed
to achieve dramatic change on
yet another front. The company
and refinery employees in early
1918 negotiated one of the
most progressive benefits/laborrelations
packages of that time.
It included proposals recommended
by industrial relations
pioneer Clarence Hicks, who
along with Teagle supported an
eight-hour workday.
11
Story by Mike Long
Today, The Lamp has a readership
of more than 650,000 who look to
the magazine for information about
ExxonMobil and the energy industry.
Lighting The Lamp
With change “busting out all
over” at Jersey, the company
recognized it needed a formal
avenue for keeping employees
informed. While president of
Jersey’s Imperial Oil Limited
affiliate in Canada, Teagle had
launched the Imperial Oil Review
in 1915. He valued how the
magazine with its company news
and information had helped build
employee morale. After becoming
president of Jersey, Teagle
invited Imperial Oil Review Editor
Victor Ross, a former Toronto
Globe financial writer, to come
to the company’s 26 Broadway
headquarters in New York to
help him “light The Lamp.”
The editorship was soon
turned over to Northrop Clarey,
former financial editor of The New
York Times. However, Teagle
served as The Lamp’s ex officio
editor-in-chief, generating article
ideas, offering copy edits and dictating
editorial topics.
Volume 1, Number 1 of The
Lamp, published in May 1918,
outlined Teagle’s original objective
for the magazine, that it
cultivate “a spirit of fellowship
and cordial cooperation” among
employees. But he also envi-
Since its founding, more than 400 issues – and some
12,000 pages of articles – have been published.
sioned a much wider purpose,
that its “rays will reach everyone
interested directly or indirectly in
the fortunes of the company,”
allowing “no shadows of misconception
nor suspicion to endure,”
and that “it will prove to be a
lighthouse in the uncharted seas
of the future.”
The public takes notice
That wider purpose soon began
to bear fruit. Investors, shareholders,
government officials, teach-
ers, librarians, newspaper editors
and other nonemployees increasingly
looked to the magazine as
a reliable source of information
about the company and the international
petroleum industry.
While the magazine continued
to cover benefits issues and local
news of direct interest to employees,
stories titled “Why Gasoline
Now Costs More” and “Increasing
Crude Supply” (topics that lately
have recaptured the public’s
attention) had wide appeal, partic

ularly in light of the world’s growing
love affair with the automobile.
Others such as “Adventures in the
Upper Amazon” and “Hunting for
Oil in Arabia” stoked the U.S. public’s
fascination about life in exotic,
faraway lands. In fact, requests
for copies reached such a point in
the early 1920s that the company
began accepting subscriptions for
$1 a year.
Another reason the magazine
proved so popular was that it
essentially served as Jersey’s
only external communications
channel. Teagle believed that
almost anything worth knowing
about the company could be
found in The Lamp’s feature articles
and management editorials.
By the early 1940s, however,
it had become clear that the
company’s growth required a
First issue, May 1918 June 1931 April 1943 Spring 2004
Readers give The Lamp “excellent” feedback
More than 400 issues and some 12,000 pages since its
founding in 1918, The Lamp continues to enjoy widespread
interest among its readers.
A recent survey of shareholders revealed that 83
percent of respondents rated the quality of The Lamp
either good or excellent and that nearly 70 percent of
them read the magazine closely. Some 30 percent on
average also passed their copy to at least two other
people. With a circulation of about 650,000, it’s esti-
more comprehensive public
communications program. Jersey
responded by organizing a public
relations department in 1943.
And with a growing number of
local departmental and affiliate
publications covering employee
news, Jersey also officially redirected
The Lamp exclusively to
external audiences, especially
shareholders. In addition, it
stepped up efforts to add more
opinion leaders in government,
business and academia to the
circulation list.
From one century
to the next
During the seven decades
that have followed, as Jersey
Standard became Exxon and
as Exxon became part of the
new ExxonMobil, The Lamp has
mated that printed copies of The Lamp reach more
than 1 million people every quarter.
In addition, tens of thousands of others access
The Lamp via the company’s Web site, ExxonMobil
.com, where each issue is posted and back copies
are archived. It is interesting to note that despite the
popularity of the Web, 75 percent of those participating
in the recent survey indicated they wanted to continue
receiving printed copies of The Lamp by mail.
tracked the company’s progress
for hundreds of thousands of
readers and provided a window
on the world around the company’s
operations.
From one generation to the
next, The Lamp has put a face on
one of the world’s largest enterprises.
It has done so by telling
the stories of employees whose
talents and imagination have
continued to improve the quality
of life for people around the world
and whose commitment to corporate
citizenship has consistently
remained a top priority.
From one century to the next,
The Lamp has served as an
important stage for the company
to speak out on issues affecting
public and governmental policy,
many that have often dealt with
energy supply and demand.
Today, 90 years since the magazine’s
founding, that stage is as
critical as it has ever been.
“The world again finds itself
in significant transition regarding
the use and availability
of energy,” says Ken Cohen,
ExxonMobil Public Affairs vice
president. “And, just as the company
has faced these challenges
in the past, our people recognize
and understand today’s critical
energy issues
and are working
hard to find
solutions. In
To learn more
exxonmobil.com/history
honoring Walter Teagle’s admonition
of 90 years ago, The Lamp
remains an important outlet to
communicate these efforts to our
shareholders and employees as
well as to opinion leaders and
other stakeholders.” the Lamp
12

West Africa update
ExxonMobil is adding to the
world’s energy supply – not only
by finding new reservoirs, but also
by making existing ones more
productive, while at the same
time reducing greenhouse-gas
emissions. That’s happening
now in the East Area fields of the
Nigeria joint-venture concession.
The Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation and an Exxon
Mobil Corporation affiliate, Mobil
Producing Nigeria (MPN), have
completed a two-stage development
to enhance production from
aging fields, reduce flaring and
recover high-value natural gas
liquids from the gas stream.
The latest development,
called the Natural Gas Liquids II
(NGL II) project, follows the 2006
Additional Oil Recovery project
13
and completes East Area’s fiveyear,
$3.5 billion investments.
Recently completed work on
the NGL II project includes the
installation of an offshore gasprocessing
complex, more than
125 miles of new pipelines and
the expansion of Nigeria’s Bonny
River Terminal. The new facilities
can process up to 950 million
cubic feet of natural gas a day,
yielding up to 50,000 barrels a
day of natural gas liquids.
“This project is aligned closely
with Nigeria’s goals of growing
reserves, increasing production
and reducing flared gas,”
says Al Hirshberg, ExxonMobil
Development Company vice
president for established areas.
“The work on the NGL II project
includes more than 12 million
Story by Richard Cunningham Photography by Michael Kotlen
Fifth major
ExxonMobil startup
in 2008 commercializes Nigerian
natural gas liquids
Project is also boosting oil production
and cutting carbon emissions.
hours completed by Nigerian
workers and local contractors
with an outstanding safety performance.
We are proud of our
accomplishments with this significant
project and the contributions
it has made to Nigeria.”
The NGL II project continues
MPN’s tradition of strengthening
and expanding the capabilities
of Nigerian companies. Besides
using a significant in-country
labor force, the project provided
an opportunity for Nigerian
companies to furnish in-country
fabrication, logistics support and
other services. These companies
were involved in construction of
the Bonny River Terminal expansion,
installation of pipelines and
fabrication of components for
the offshore complex.
A marine-transport vessel
installs a new offshore platform
at the East Area NGL II project.
The development also includes
more than 125 miles of new
pipelines and an expansion of
Nigeria’s Bonny River Terminal.
A key part of NGL II development’s
strategy included the use
of funding from Nigerian banks.
Approximately $220 million of
the total project financing was
completely arranged through
Nigerian banks. This represents
the first time a major oil and
gas joint venture in Nigeria has
completed a financing package
exclusively through Nigerian
financial institutions.
Although a sizeable part of the
total budget was spent in Nigeria,
construction was on a global

scale, with 10 major engineering
or fabrication sites in North
America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
“The sun never set on this project,”
says Shuaibu Otori, MPN
development manager. “During
construction, activities were
taking place around the world
because of what we were doing
here. Concurrently, the project
provided excellent training and
development opportunities for
Nigerians involved in the project.”
The long view
The section known as East Area
includes six shallow-water fields
in the ancient Niger River delta.
When the fields were developed
in the 1970s, there was no market
for the associated natural gas.
“Over time, we learned more
about the reservoirs and ways
to maximize the value of the
gas,” says Al Short, joint-venture
operations manager. “That was
the beginning of the East Area
gas project.”
The project gathers natural
gas from most of the jointventure
area, which includes
hundreds of wells encompassing
more than 600 square miles of
open water. The natural gas liquids
– propane, butane and pentanes
– are extracted from the
rich gas stream and transported
onshore by pipeline for fractionation
and storage prior to loading
onto tankers for sale. The residue
gas is reinjected to maintain
pressure in the reservoirs and
enhance oil production.
In some cases, wells that had
stopped producing oil are coming
back on stream. The gas
that is now injected is preserved
and can eventually be recovered
and sold. Long term, the project
is expected to add 530 million
gross barrels of oil and 275 million
The NGL II project required expansion to the existing onshore fractionation
terminal built on Bonny Island in the mid-1990s. The expansion more than
doubles the onshore processing capacity of liquids arriving from offshore,
and provides additional storage of fractionated products until they can be
transferred into cargo tankers. The new system at the Bonny River Terminal
is connected to the offshore gas-processing complex by a 90-mile pipeline.
gross barrels of natural gas liquids
to Nigeria’s petroleum reserves
and reduce routine gas flaring.
“We are already making a big
difference by dramatically reducing
the amount of gas being
flared,” Short says.
Future capacity
East Area development planners
see the potential for even
more production from new wells
to be drilled in the years ahead.
The new infrastructure now in
place gives MPN the capacity to
develop another 500 million barrels
of oil.
“That is in addition to the 530
million barrels of oil reserves that
we estimate now,” says Ray
Steinmetz, Nigeria joint-venture
project executive for ExxonMobil
Development Company. “We
think we can also recover another
300 million barrels of natural gas
liquids from future projects.”
For at least another year, the
work will continue to link East
Area’s satellite offshore platforms
to the central gas-processing
system. The project so far has
Niger Delta
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Inanga Idoho Isobo
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Etim
had an outstanding safety record,
and all those involved intend to
keep it that way.
The challenge is to complete
all of the renovation and construction
work without affecting
operations. “It’s a bit like remodeling
your home while you are
still living there,” Steinmetz says.
“Now the end is in sight. As we
Iyak
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Producing fields
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upgrade the
remaining
platforms,
we plan to
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To learn more
exxonmobil.com/ngl
maximize the value from the new
gas-processing complex, and
we are proud of the reduced flaring
we have achieved, with its
positive impact on the environment.”
the Lamp
14

West Africa update
15
Angolan project
brings gains in oil production, use of
local resources and worker safety
The successful startup of two more fields in ExxonMobil’s Kizomba C
development off the West African coast has brought on vital additions of
oil for a world whose energy needs are growing. The path to this accomplishment
includes maximizing local content and a coordinated effort to
improve worker safety among each of the project’s major contractors.
Ninety miles off the coast
of Angola, Kizomba C is
ExxonMobil’s largest subsea oil
project. It comprises three fields:
Mondo, which came on stream
in January 2008, and Saxi and
Batuque, which began production
this summer. It’s designed to
develop 600 million barrels of oil.
The development includes
two floating production, storage
and offloading (FPSO) vessels
and 36 subsea wells.
ExxonMobil, operator with a
40 percent interest, was awarded
Block 15, where Kizomba C is
located, in 1994. The first discovery
occurred in 1998. Sonangol,
the Angolan national oil company,
is concessionaire, and other participants
include BP Exploration
(Angola) Limited 26.67 percent,
ENI Angola Exploration B.V. 20
percent and Statoil Angola Block
15 A.S. 13.33 percent.
The twin FPSO vessels are the
fourth and fifth production hubs
Story by Bill Corporon
on Block 15, where production
reached a total of 700,000 barrels
a day in August 2008.
Startup of the Saxi and
Batuque fields in Angola’s prolific
Block 15 follows other ExxonMobil
projects that began producing
in 2008, including Kizomba C
Mondo (Angola), Volve (Norway),
Starling (UK), ACG Phase 3
(Azerbaijan) and East Area Natural
Gas Liquids II (Nigeria).
Maximizing local resources
In developing Kizomba C,
ExxonMobil has spent nearly
$1.5 billion on Angolan goods
and services as part of the
company’s national content program.
These purchases include
contracts for in-country services
and training and development of
Angolan personnel.
For example, four local
companies were selected to
provide in-country fabrication
expertise for such components
as manifolds, mooring systems
and FPSO turret structures.
These and other elements were
transported from Angola to the
Keppel Shipyard Limited facility
in Singapore for assembly and
integration into the FPSOs.
In addition to purchasing equipment
and fabrication services from
Angolan companies, ExxonMobil
continued a longstanding practice
of hiring and training Angolan
engineers and other personnel –
a practice established by the
company long before production
began from Kizomba C.
A notable example was a new
training initiative for the Kizomba
C project that leveraged its contractors
to provide training of
Angolans in fabrication and operations-type
assignments. During
a two-year period, 75 employees
from Angolan companies were
given the opportunity to develop
new skills. Many traveled to the
Keppel Shipyard, where they
Photo by Keith Wood
Kizomba C involves the development of
600 million barrels of oil from three fields
using 36 subsea wells and two floating
production, storage and offloading vessels,
one of which is pictured above.
received hands-on training in
fabrication and project management
skills. This included experiences
in safety planning, welding,
scheduling and contracting.
Another 50 Angolans were
trained to support and operate
the FPSOs through courses
provided in the United Kingdom
and other European countries as
well as South Africa.
In turn, they brought their new
skills home to Angola and, by
sharing them with colleagues,
helped spread knowledge and
technology in the indigenous
work force.
“ExxonMobil is committed
to developing national content
and local companies wherever
we operate in the world,” says
Mike Flynn, vice president for

deepwater projects, ExxonMobil
Development Company. “Kizomba
C is an excellent example, with its
large scale and significant equipment
and personnel needs. It
demonstrates how ExxonMobil
integrates our unique project management
capabilities to develop
Angolan businesses and suppliers
and deliver exceptional value.”
Partnering for safety
improvement
The story of Kizomba C goes
beyond hardware and impressive
statistics. It also involves the
story of a concerted, integrated
and vigorous effort to ensure the
safety of all workers on the project,
regardless of location.
This approach leverages
ExxonMobil’s widely recognized
and highly focused approach to
safety in all jobs and operations.
An example of the success of
this initiative is evidenced in the
impact made at Keppel Shipyard
in Singapore. Keppel, a subcontractor
of SBM (the contractor for
the FPSOs), was contacted early
on to participate in this endeavor,
beginning with a comprehensive
evaluation to determine worker
safety awareness and attitudes at
the shipyard.
Keppel, with its own strong
interest in worker safety, was
eager to make a step-change
improvement in its safety performance
and readily accepted the
offer to partner with ExxonMobil.
“This initiative went beyond
traditional safety reminders,
safety requirements and emphasis
on safe practices, as important
as those are,” says Ken
Larson, Kizomba C project manager.
“It focused on the underlying
safety culture and on finding
new opportunities from a leadership
perspective to improve
safety performance.”
The first step was to perform
a “gap analysis” to assess the
entire safety culture from senior
management down to the people
doing the work.
Next, Larson says, was a
Workers at the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore embarked on new safety
programs that resulted in a significant reduction of on-the-job incidents.
review of the overall safety management
system and processes
employed in the yard.
“We made a key discovery,”
he says. “We found out that
while management had a strong
commitment to safety, it was not
visible or completely understood
at the worker level.”
The challenge was magnified
since Keppel’s Singapore shipyard
employs 16,000 workers
from different countries and different
cultures.
Part of the improvement effort
involved a specially tailored safety
training and coaching program for
managers, supervisors and fore-
persons representing contractors
and major subcontractors.
Other highlights:
All Keppel managers conducted
regular site safety
walkthroughs. They observed
employees at work, provided
feedback and recorded their
findings. The data were used in
feedback sessions with workers.
Photo courtesy of Keppel Shipyard Limited
More than 2,600 supervisors
and forepersons were trained to
identify safe and at-risk behavior
by workers. Individuals demonstrating
safe behaviors received
positive feedback on the spot.
A safety video was developed
for use with employees working
on the FPSOs. A key element
of the video was to encourage
workers to look beyond
the conventional view of safety
awareness. They were reminded
that their families and loved ones
have a stake in their well-being.
The effort at Keppel will continue
in a program called “Safety
Excellence 2010,” which will
recruit other companies to join
the safety improvement program.
Thanks to the safety initiatives
undertaken by Keppel and
ExxonMobil, the safety record for
Keppel’s construction and assembly
work for Kizomba C reached
record levels.
The lost-time incident rate
during the course of the project
was reduced to 0.24 incidents
per million work hours at Keppel.
That’s about 10 times better
than industry averages.
“Numbers are important,” says
Larson, “but
they aren’t the To learn more
exxonmobil.com/angola
whole story.
This achievement
means more people go
home to their families at the end
of every day with no injuries, in
line with our goal of ‘Nobody
Gets Hurt.’ In addition, it gives
us valuable experience that we
can leverage at other ExxonMobil
projects around the world.” It
also resulted in exemplary performance
that was a key factor
in the on-time, under-budget
startup of the Mondo and Saxi-
Batuque projects. the Lamp
16

Camps for kids
who like to think
Have you ever asked a child,
“How did you spend your summer
vacation?”
Fifty middle-school students
in Virginia can say they built
remote-controlled solar-powered
robots. A similar group in Oregon
will tell you that, with help from a
NASA astronaut, they planned a
two-year mission to Mars.
In all, some 1,200 boys
and girls – equal numbers of
each – attended one of the
25 ExxonMobil Bernard Harris
Summer Science Camps in 23
U.S. cities in 2008. The goal of
the program is to reach good
students from grades 6 through
8 and excite them about math,
science and technology.
There are always more applicants
than the free camps can
accept. With support from the
ExxonMobil Foundation, however,
the program reaches 15
times more students than it did
just three years ago.
“Our target for 2009 is 30
camps,” says Truman Bell,
ExxonMobil’s senior program
officer for Education and
Diversity. “We have a very good
template that Dr. Harris has
developed. The two-week resi-
17
17
ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camps give bright
but disadvantaged U.S. middle-school students the chance to
experience the world of science and technology for themselves.
dential camps, which are hosted
by universities around the country,
are a great outreach program
for the schools as well. For
many kids, it is their first time on
a college campus.”
The camp programs are
based on national science
and math standards. There’s a
strong emphasis on applied science
and hands-on activity.
To take full advantage of a
university’s expertise, individual
camp directors have some latitude
in the way they teach the
classes.
The University of Oklahoma,
for example, is strong in the
earth sciences, so the camp it
sponsors teaches a range of
math, biology and chemistry, all
related to geoscience.
At The University of Central
Florida, the 2008 camp focused
on forensic science. For two
weeks, the students learned
about the math, science and
technology of a criminal investigation.
On the final day, campers
conducted a mock trial,
each taking the role of someone
involved in the case.
“Campers come to the universities
and live in dormitory rooms
Story by Richard Cunningham Photography by Marc Chartrand
during the week,” Bell explains.
“That exposes them to a college
atmosphere. Some of the teachers
are college professors. The
programs are intense, designed
for top students who are already
motivated to learn. By the end
of camp, we want them to leave
with a new appreciation for the
real world of math and science.”
It’s OK to be smart
There is a consistent theme
at every camp – it is OK to be
smart. Dr. Bernard Harris, cofounder
of the program, visits
many of the camps to meet the
students and press home the
message.
“It’s OK to be a geek, because
geeks rule the world,” he told a
group of New Jersey campers in
July. “Each of you was born into
this world with infinite possibilities.
You are the only one to decide
your special talents and skills.”
The Harris Foundation, which
organizes the camps, empowers
students, especially minorities
and those who are economically
and/or socially disadvantaged,
through math and science education.
Whenever Harris speaks,
he relates to young people by
Dr. Bernard Harris,
physician and former
astronaut, is the inspiration
behind a rigorous program
that fosters math and
science skills in middleschool
children. This past
summer, more than 1,200
students attended one of
25 camps held in 23 cities
across the United States.

drawing on his own experience.
“I grew up poor, not having the
same opportunities as others,”
he explains. “I was raised by a
single mom. When she wanted
a fresh start, she took a job with
the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I
grew up in Arizona and New
Mexico, in the Navajo Nation,
where my mother taught school.”
As a child with few early role
models, Harris found his own
strengths.
“I believe we all have power
inside,” he says. “We are all born
multitalented, with the belief that
nothing is impossible, but then
the environment of our family and
community takes over. It begins
to tell us ‘no’ in different ways.
This can confine and restrict us.
We may end up, as many young
people have today, struggling
and not believing in ourselves.”
The best feedback
For all who attend, science
camp is more than a one-time
event. There is a Saturday acad-
emy or other programs during
the academic year as follow-up
for each camp, and many of the
students keep in touch with the
new friends they’ve made.
“We want to know if we’re
having an impact,” Harris says.
“We want to know how we can
improve the camps.”
Camp organizers also track
student progress through grades
and state performance tests.
Probably the best feedback,
however, comes from the families
and students themselves.
“We often hear from former
campers and their families,”
Harris says. “Many say our
program is the reason they
are in math and science. One
dad told me recently that his
daughter came home from one
of our earlier camps so excited
that she became an educator.
Now she’s in her second year of
teaching at a math and science
magnet school in Houston. That
kind of story makes me feel
very good.” the Lamp
The sky is the limit
Bernard Harris is a medical
doctor who trains like an athlete,
thinks like a businessman
and radiates the confidence
of someone who has flown
in space. He’s also head of
what is now the ExxonMobil
Bernard Harris Summer
Bernard A. Harris Jr., M.D. Science Camp program.
Harris retired from the U.S.
space program in 1996 as a veteran of two shuttle missions
and a historic walk in space. Today his Houston-based venturecapital
firm invests in companies that specialize in telemedicine.
With a staff that schedules his appointments by the minute,
Harris still found time to visit 20 of the 25 science camps held
in 2008, easily spending more time traveling than when he
logged more than 7 million miles in space.
“I’ve been an active person and a multitasker all my life,”
Harris says. “It helps when you are passionate about what you
are doing. If we do our job right on the venture-capital side, a
company takes off. When we do our job right with a kid, the
kid takes off. After that, the sky is the limit.”
To learn more
exxonmobil.com/
mathandscience
18

Taking a different track
19
Story by Bill Corporon Photography by Ed Lallo
“I had a lot of good bosses during
my career,” says Edward E.
Whitacre Jr. “Why they kept promoting
me was a mystery, but I
guess they saw something.”
What his supervisors saw in
Whitacre, ExxonMobil’s newest
board member, were talent,
leadership and persistence.
Whitacre is a native of Ennis,
Texas, a town of about 20,000
that lies some 40 miles south of
Dallas.
“It was a typical small town
when I was growing up,”
Whitacre says. “There was
one school, everyone knew
each other, and life revolved
around the railroad. People just
assumed that when they finished
high school, they’d go to
work for the Southern Pacific.”
Whitacre’s parents had higher
expectations for their son.
“My father was a locomotive
engineer for 50 years,” he says.
“He never finished high school.
He told me he did not want me
working for the railroad. Both my
parents were insistent that I get
a college degree.”
Whitacre enrolled at Texas
Tech University in Lubbock
and graduated with a degree
in industrial engineering. “I
picked Tech because it had a
Born and raised in a railroad
town, ExxonMobil’s newest
director rose to the top of
one of America’s premier
communications companies.
good engineering school, I liked
Lubbock, and the tuition was
only $75,” he says.
Rising through the ranks
In 1963, Whitacre went to work
for Southwestern Bell Telephone
Company as a facility engineer.
His job was to “make sure the
equipment was in place to serve
the customer, whether the customer
was a house, an apartment
or an office building.”
He moved on to a series
of positions in the company’s
operational departments in
Texas, Arkansas and Kansas. He
headed the company’s Kansas
division for three years before
moving on to corporate headquarters
in St. Louis.
“We moved 19 times,” he
says. “That’s why traveling is not
high on my retirement to-do list.”
Whitacre held a number of key
leadership positions, including
group president, vice president of
revenues and public affairs, vice
chairman and chief financial officer,
and president and chief operating
officer. He became chairman and
chief executive officer in 1990.
In 1995, Southwestern Bell
became SBC Communications.
In succeeding years, it acquired
three of the seven “Baby Bells”
that emerged from the breakup
of AT&T in 1984. The longdistance
service resulting from
the split was called AT&T. SBC
acquired that company in 2005,
then took the AT&T name for the
entire organization.
With the name change,
Whitacre became chairman and
CEO of AT&T, the nation’s largest
provider of wireless, broadband
and traditional phone services.
Whitacre retired in 2007
after a 44-year career and 17
years at the helm of AT&T and
its predecessor companies. At
the time, the Associated Press

described him as “an outspoken
Texan known for blunt remarks
on industry topics.”
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration,”
says Whitacre, “but you do
have to let people know what
you’re thinking.”
Family and community
Whitacre and his wife, Linda,
make their home in San Antonio,
Texas. They have two daughters
– one is a lawyer in Dallas,
the other an elementary school
teacher in San Antonio – and
four grandchildren.
Whitacre is a member of the
Boy Scouts Advisory Council
and a trustee on the Advisory
Board of the San Antonio United
Way group. He’s a member of
the Business Council and serves
on the boards of the Institute
for International Economics,
Anheuser-Busch Companies
and Burlington Northern Santa
Fe Corporation.
Whitacre has chaired the
Texas Tech board of regents and
counts himself a loyal alumnus.
“I still have pretty close ties
there,” he says.
To relax, Whitacre turns to
golf. He also reads several
newspapers each day and usually
has a book nearby.
He enjoys hunting and fishing.
The hunting trips include
his chocolate Labrador retriever,
Lucille, who “loves to hunt and
take naps.”
Coming to ExxonMobil
Whitacre says that while his
knowledge of the petroleum
industry is limited, he feels he
brings some useful experience
to the job of director.
“I believe I understand what
makes big organizations tick,”
he says. “ExxonMobil is a huge
company, and that parallels my
own corporate experience.”
Whitacre describes ExxonMobil
as a “very disciplined company.”
“They’re engineering-oriented
and very careful about capital
investment. They have a very
thoughtful planning process, and
they execute their plans well.”
Whitacre is especially impressed
by the ExxonMobil culture.
“People are proud of their
company,” he says, “and you
won’t find that everywhere. The
company treats its employees very
well, and that pays off.” the Lamp
20

21
Innovative technology
could commercialize
challenging gas resources
Story by Kevin Gault Photography by Janice Rubin
Process may make carbon capture and
storage more affordable while significantly
reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Brilliant ideas sometimes strike
the mind with the force of a
lightning bolt. But the idea that
an ExxonMobil scientist had for
a revolutionary natural-gas processing
technology drifted into
his thoughts like gently falling
snowflakes.
Reminiscing about his college
days at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology during a
wintertime walk by the Charles
River, Jaime Valencia recalls, “In
the coldest winters in Boston,
there were times when the river
would freeze completely and
snow would accumulate on top
Simplified CFZ process
Production
wells
Refrigerant
lowers temperature
to about -50°F
Inlet dehydration
and refrigeration
Gas from fields
Methane / CO 2 / H 2 S
Feed gas
of it. More often though, the
river was only partially frozen,
and the snow that landed on the
water simply melted and flowed
downstream. That observation
became a key element in the
development of a novel idea
Robby Denton [co-inventor of
the technology] and I were pursuing,”
says Valencia, gas and
facilities technology division,
ExxonMobil Upstream Research
Company.
The idea led to the CFZ technology
that is being brought
to commercial readiness at a
new demonstration plant near
Conventional
distillation
CFZ section
Conventional
distillation
Liquid CO 2 and H 2 S
CO 2 and other
gases sequestered
and injected into
dedicated wells
LaBarge, Wyoming, beginning
next year.
Simpler process,
lower costs
“The idea of snow falling into a
flowing river helped crystallize the
design of the CFZ process for
Robby and me,” Valencia says.
“The technology simplifies the
process for separating carbon
dioxide [CO 2 ] and other impurities
from natural gas, lowering costs.
Just as important, it facilitates
carbon capture and storage.”
“Today we have a large
resource base, which includes
Methane
to sales
Injection
wells
Compared to current
technologies, the
CFZ process saves
money onshore by
reducing equipment,
such as vessels
and pumps, and for
offshore applications
by additionally
reducing space,
weight and size of
platforms or ships.
Illustration by Pat Gabriel

some challenging gas reservoirs
where CFZ technology could be
used,” says Randy Howard, project
executive, CFZ commercialization,
ExxonMobil Development
Company. “As much as one-third
of world gas reserves have a
high level of CO 2 . If CFZ is commercialized,
it could help us bring
important new energy supplies to
consumers.”
This is possible because the
CFZ technology reduces capital
costs, as the process involves
fewer steps and less equipment.
For offshore applications, this
also means less size and weight.
The innovative, single-step
separation process, invented
and patented by ExxonMobil in
the 1980s, was proven at a pilot
plant in Texas, and has now led
to the May 2008 announcement
by ExxonMobil that it has committed
more than $100 million to
build a commercial demonstration
plant near LaBarge. The
plant, located at the company’s
Shute Creek Treating Facility, will
advance CFZ to the commercialapplication
stage.
“The goal of the plant is to
demonstrate that we can meet
or exceed the specifications for
sales gas over a wide range of
field compositions, while captur-
Part of the CFZ technology team (from left): Jaime Valencia,
Jeff Daly, Beverly Mentzer, Kay Ogundeyi and Randy Howard.
ing design data that will allow
us to scale CFZ facilities up to
world-class-size applications,”
Howard says. “As is customary
at ExxonMobil, the first priority
will be the safety of all the people
involved, from plant design
through operation.”
Construction of the plant
began this summer, and startup
is scheduled for late 2009. The
testing of CFZ will take place
over a one- to two-year period.
During that time, the plant will
process about 14 million cubic
feet of gas per day of various
gas compositions to confirm
how the CFZ technology will
work on the world’s challenging
gas resources.
Over the last several years,
various patented improvements
to the process were developed
by the original inventors as well
as by company researchers Don
Victory and Gene Thomas, both
of whom played key roles in the
pilot plant project.
Business and
environmental benefits
CFZ lowers the cost of carbon
capture and storage because
the process separates CO 2 ,
and other contaminants, as a
high-pressure liquid stream that
22

23
A look at the technology
Typically, the natural-gas industry uses
distillation processes to separate hydrocarbon
natural-gas components such as
methane, ethane, propane and butane.
In doing so, very cold temperatures are
used to condition the gas for sale. If
appreciable amounts of carbon dioxide
(CO 2 ) are present it will freeze, forming
solids inside a processing tower which
normally handles only liquids and gases.
Existing commercial technologies
avoid the troublesome solidification of
CO 2 by using entirely different separation
processes that involve multiple steps.
They also require chemical agents that
must be subsequently recovered. These
alternate technologies primarily are aimed
at removing low impurity levels of contaminants,
and the processing costs rise
considerably when high concentrations
of undesirable components are present.
The CFZ demonstration plant is designed to process 14 million
cubic feet of natural gas per day – some 25 times the capacity of
the original pilot plant built in the 1980s in Texas. A world-scale
commercial facility could process about 1 billion cubic feet per
day, some 70 times that of the demonstration unit.
For example, some of the most challenging
natural-gas fields in the world have a
hydrocarbon content of only 20 to 40 percent,
with the rest being contaminants.
Rather than avoiding the solidification
of CO 2 , Valencia and Denton’s concept
involved the freezing and remelting of
CO 2 under carefully controlled conditions
in a specially designed section of a
conventional distillation tower. That section,
an open chamber with an “unfrozen
flowing river” at its bottom, came to be
known as the controlled freeze zone. Not
only did it allow the single-step separation
of CO 2 from methane, but it provided
the added benefit of discharging CO 2 as
a liquid, which could then be pumped
and injected underground, making carbon
capture and storage more efficient
and affordable in reducing greenhousegas
emissions.
can be reinjected underground.
Conventional processes require
expensive recompression of the
CO2 for reinjection. The CFZ
technology has additional benefits:
there’s no need to use
chemical agents in the process,
and it also eliminates sulfur production
from hydrogen sulfide
often found in gas streams.
An extensive team of scientists,
engineers and designers from
three ExxonMobil companies and
the engineering and construction
contractor, URS, is working
on the project. The team is led
by Jeff Daly, CFZ commercial
demonstration plant project manager,
ExxonMobil Development
Company, in close cooperation
with Tim Mullen, Shute Creek
Treating Facility senior plant
superintendent, ExxonMobil
Production Company.
ExxonMobil has researched
and developed carbon-management
technologies for more
than 30 years. In addition to its
research programs, the company
has supported carbon-capture
and storage research conducted
by the International Energy
Agency, MIT,
Georgia Tech To learn more
University, the exxonmobil.com/cfz
University of
Texas and Stanford University.
The CFZ technology could
bring additional needed energy
supplies to world markets
from challenging natural-gas
resources while benefiting the
environment. Its genesis was
more than two decades ago
when an innovative ExxonMobil
scientist recalled snowflakes falling
onto a river. the Lamp

Helping protect tomorrow,
Imagine an automotive tire made
with a new lightweight impermeable
material that could potentially help
save more than a billion gallons of
fuel every year, the equivalent of
taking a million cars off U.S. roads.
Imagine a new lighter, thinner
plastic used to shrink-wrap shipping
pallets, cover greenhouses
and produce heavy-duty bags.
And imagine manufacturing it
using fewer resources than existing
materials and saving enough
energy to power more than
900,000 U.S. homes.
Imagine a new film technology for
lithium-ion batteries that could help
usher in a new generation of hybrid
and electric vehicles.
Chemicals make all this happen.
They enable many forms of energy
savings and foster a higher standard
of living. Because every society
wants the benefits that chemical
products can deliver, demand
is increasing, and chemical companies
understand they have a
responsibility to present and future
generations.
ExxonMobil Chemical is committed
to the principles of sustainable
development, which is defined as
meeting the needs of the present
without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their
own needs. It balances economic
growth, social development and
environmental protection. That balance
is reflected in how ExxonMobil
Chemical operates its business and
promotes its products.
Key to turning these principles
ExxonMobil Chemical Company’s sustainability
efforts are found on the road and in the stores.
into action is the company’s application
of efficiency improvements
and technology advances throughout
its operations and product
offerings. For example, last year
ExxonMobil spent more than $1 billion
in research, development and
technology applications to improve
manufacturing processes, lower
energy use and emissions, increase
product yields, and develop new
and better products for customers.
“The demand for chemicals is
expected to continue to grow,”
says Bob Davis, vice president
of technology for ExxonMobil
Chemical. “As demand grows, we
keep improving the technology to
process different feedstocks, to
reduce energy consumption and
emissions, and to increase product
output.”
During the last five years, the
energy consumed per unit of output
across ExxonMobil Chemical
has decreased by approximately
10 percent.
Sustainability from
greenhouses to stores
“Consumers are demanding
products packaged in a way that
is environmentally responsible
without sacrificing strength and
durability,” says Dave McConville,
polyethylene global market development
manager. “ExxonMobil
Chemical provides the raw materials
to meet this demand with innovative
products and technologies
that are leading to thinner films for
everything from food packaging to
greenhouse covers to heavy-duty
fertilizer bags.”
today
A typical light vehicle
(above) contains more
than $2,000 worth of
chemical products that
help improve fuel economy
and performance.
ExxonMobil Chemical
provides the raw materials
that make food packaging
(right, below) strong and
durable while sealing in
freshness for a wide range
of everyday products.
Story by Amanda Coyne Photography by Ed Lallo
24

Tom Upton, global manager, product
research, studies a polymer sample in
his Baytown, Texas, laboratory.
ExxonMobil Chemical’s new
Enable Mpe products are recyclable
and help make strong but
significantly thinner films that
use fewer raw materials and
less energy than conventional
films. Energy efficiencies are
seen across the entire life cycle,
from manufacturing, to product
transportation, to prolonged
shelf life and finally to recycle
and disposal.
“These new products reduce
the amount of film needed by
about 20 percent, improve film
performance and, at the same
time, reduce energy consumption
because they can be processed
at lower temperatures,”
says Margaret Mattix, global
marketing vice president. “In
fact, these products can have
significant greenhouse-gas
reductions, equivalent to sav-
25
ing enough energy to power
900,000 homes.”
ExxonMobil products are also
used to keep people warm.
Many believe that cotton is a
better choice for fabric because
it’s a natural fiber and renewable;
however, cotton requires large
amounts of water compared to
other crops such as rice, wheat
and corn. Cotton’s supply growth
will be challenged by competition
for land and water as world population
increases and economies
continue to develop.
Polyester production uses
only about 0.1 percent of the
water used to grow cotton. Not
only is it more sustainable, but
it is preferred by the consumer.
“Polyester has become a popular
choice over cotton because
of its lower cost and superior
performance,” says T.J. Wojnar,
senior vice president for Basic
Chemicals, Intermediates and
Synthetics. “The developing
world – notably China, where
demand for consumer goods
is growing – has shown a clear
preference for clothing made
from polyester, thanks to its lower
cost and wide range of product
choices.”
ExxonMobil Chemical has
recently developed a proprietary
catalyst to improve the
overall manufacturing process
for polyester, making it more
efficient and cost effective. The
innovation, now being licensed
by ExxonMobil under the name
PxMax, significantly lowers the
cost of producing xylene, the
primary ingredient to manufacture
polyester. The process
also generates less waste and
requires less energy than previ-
ous methods, which, in turn,
lowers CO 2 emissions from the
eight ExxonMobil and licensee
plants where PxMax technology
is being used.
From the auto world
One of the company’s most
exciting new technologies is in
the design of the battery separator
film within lithium-ion batteries
for hybrid and electric vehicles.
“The challenge given to us by our
customers was clear – enhance
battery performance by improving
safety, reliability and power
density,” says Jim Harris, senior
vice president of Polymers. “We
responded with an innovative
polymer film that combines our
advanced manufacturing process
with our proprietary polymer
technology.” Powering hybrid and
electric vehicles with lithium-ion

atteries will improve energy
efficiency and reduce emissions.
“We have committed some of our
brightest minds to help make the
next generation of lower-emission,
fuel-efficient vehicles a reality,”
says Harris.
Another innovation for
ExxonMobil Chemical is a new
blend of synthetic rubber and
nylon that enables tires to retain
air pressure longer. This superior
air retention technology makes
tire innerliners as thin and light as
a plastic bag – about 80 percent
lighter than traditional innerliners
but with superior air retention.
According to the U.S. Depart-
ment of Energy, American drivers
waste more than a billion gallons
of gasoline every year just from
underinflated tires. “This breakthrough
not only means that tires
stay properly inflated longer but
also makes them lighter, which
has significant potential to reduce
vehicle fuel use,” Harris says.
The average light vehicle produced
in the United States contains
more than $2,000 worth of
chemical products. A large and
growing portion of that chemistry
is in plastic and composite components,
mostly replacing steel.
ExxonMobil Chemical works
closely with leading automakers
and suppliers worldwide to help
reduce the weight of today’s
automobiles. This improves
fuel efficiency, and helps lower
greenhouse-gas emissions and
manufacturing costs.
Product life cycles
In its chemical operations, ExxonMobil applies a sciencebased
approach to its sustainability efforts. One tool the
company promotes is called Life Cycle Assessment. As
opposed to looking at one aspect of a chemical’s use,
this method follows a product from raw material extraction
and manufacturing through distribution, recycling and
disposal. It measures the total energy and other resources
consumed by a product, while analyzing the emissions
and waste generated.
“The chemicals business is all about transforming
hydrocarbon molecules to improve the quality of
our lives,” says Steve Pryor, president of ExxonMobil
Chemical Company. “The chemical industry makes everyday
life better by providing raw materials for more than
70,000 products that help keep us safe, healthy, warm,
cool, on time, in motion and connected.”
Pryor says, “The value to society is measured not only
by the performance of our products, but also by the
environmental footprint associated with their manufacture
and use. At ExxonMobil, we are committed to reducing
our environmental footprint through increasing our own
energy efficiency, advancing current technologies and
developing breakthrough technologies. We also help
manufacture many products that play a fundamental role
in ensuring that society is more energy-efficient and environmentally
responsible.”
Andy Winesett, senior physicist, tests the tensile strength of a polymer
sample. The rate at which it stretches and the force required to
break it are important measures of polymer performance.
“Today’s plastics have reduced
the weight of the average automobile
by about 10 percent,
and the Department of Energy
estimates this weight reduction
leads to about a 6.6 percent
improvement in fuel economy,”
says Harris. “The lightweighting
features of our products enable
auto manufacturers to improve
a car’s performance while maintaining
affordability and reducing
fuel consumption.”
Sustainability from within
Energy efficiency, a key pillar of
the Chemical Company’s sustainability
efforts, is core to the company’s
operations. For example,
the company’s cogeneration
plants, operating at more than 30
ExxonMobil sites throughout the
world, generate enough energy
to power more than 2 million
households and provide a significant
greenhouse-gas reduction.
Another example of efficiency
contribution can be found at
ExxonMobil Chemical’s Baton
Rouge plant. More than 60
years ago, the company began
operating the world’s first steam
cracker there. Many regard
steam cracking as the engine
of most chemical complexes.
Today, that same unit consumes
less than half the energy per ton
of olefin produced than it did
when it started up in 1941.
“Our product innovations
and internal efficiencies, applied
throughout the company, lead
to better products, less energy
usage and reduced environmental
impact,” says ExxonMobil
Chemical Company President
Steve Pryor.
“These
efforts demonstrate
our
To learn more
exxonmobilchemical.com/
sustainability
ability to not only provide better
products for our customers, but
also enable ExxonMobil to operate
more efficiently over the long
term.” the Lamp
26

Panorama
27
Around the world with ExxonMobil Torrance refinery adds massive clean-air facilities
New ExxonMobil MasterCard
features unlimited gasoline rebates
ExxonMobil and Citi Cards have launched a new ExxonMobil
MasterCard that offers rebates on gasoline purchased at
U.S. Exxon and Mobil retail locations.
Cardholders
earn rebates of 15
cents per gallon,
and there is no limit
on the amount of
rebates that can be
earned. However,
those opening a
new ExxonMobil
MasterCard account
during the promotion period that ends December 31, 2008,
will earn rebates of 30 cents per gallon for the first 60 days.
“Most cards offer percentage rebates off the total price,”
says Ben Soraci, ExxonMobil U.S. Retail Sales director. “Our
card has the competitive advantage of offering a cents-pergallon
rebate that allows consumers to easily calculate their
savings.”
In addition, ExxonMobil MasterCard customers earn
annual rebates of up to 2 percent on the first $10,000 in
other eligible purchases and a 1 percent rebate on other
eligible purchases of more than $10,000.
The rebates will be automatically credited on monthly
cardholder statements in $10 increments toward future
Exxon and Mobil gasoline purchases made with the card.
Other card features include:
No annual fee
0 percent APR on purchases, plus no-interest balance
transfers for the first six months
Ability to link to Speedpass
For more information, visit exxonmobilcard.com.
One of the largest single environmental
upgrades in the
79-year history of ExxonMobil’s
refinery in Torrance, California, is
nearing completion.
The project involves installation
of two electrostatic precipitators
(ESPs) at the refinery’s fluid catalytic-cracking
plant. Estimated
to cost more than $300 million,
the ESPs will put the refinery in
compliance with a new statemandated
clean-air regulation
requiring substantial cuts in
particulate-matter emissions.
About the size of a 12-story
building, each ESP was assembled
at a remote site within the
refinery. The project elected to
follow unconventional modular
construction due to facility congestion
around the cat cracker.
“We determined we did
not have adequate space to
safely follow a standard ‘stickbuild’
approach,” says Donald
Runaldue, ESP project executive.
“Instead, we elected to prefabricate
at a safer location inside the
refinery, then lift each module and
transport it to the cat cracker for
installation.”
Rob Sturgis, ESP senior project
manager, adds that the module
approach allowed the project
to install piling, foundations and
structural steel in parallel with ESP
assembly, shortening the construction
span significantly. “This
was particularly helpful since we
were faced with a very tight construction
schedule,” says Sturgis.
Gene Weber, ESP technical
manager, notes the dimensions
of the ESPs and various components
are impressive.
“The ESP-1 module weighed
1,200 tons, while the fully
assembled ESP-2 weighed
almost 1,600 tons,” says Weber.
“Fully erected, the completed
units measure 125 feet tall, 174
feet long and 85 feet wide. One
bypass duct has a diameter of
13 feet – wide enough to drive a
car through. Some of the major
valves have diameters of 11 feet
or more.”
Startup is planned for January
2009.
The huge ESP-1 (above and left) shown being moved to its
installation site inside the Torrance Refinery stood 12 stories
tall and had a transport weight of 1,200 tons.

Pictured are (top row, from left) Hugh Helferty, EMRE
Products Research and Technology manager who accepted
the American Chemistry Society award on behalf of the
company, and honorees Ernie Lewis, Stephen McCarthy
and Kenneth Lloyd Riley, and (bottom row, from left) Michael
Kerby, Sabato Miseo and Stuart Soled.
EMRE scientists named
2008 Heroes of Chemistry
The American Chemical Society has recognized six
ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
(EMRE) scientists as its 2008 Heroes of Chemistry
for their work in producing cleaner diesel fuel.
The honorees are Michael Kerby, Ernie Lewis,
Stephen McCarthy, Sabato Miseo, Kenneth Lloyd
Riley and Stuart Soled.
In collaboration with Albemarle Corporation, the
EMRE scientists developed and commercialized the
Nebula catalyst that significantly lowers sulfur content
in diesel fuel. The cleaner-burning fuel enables
advanced vehicle-emissions systems for reduced
emissions and improved air quality. The scientists
were honored at the 236th National Meeting of the
American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific
society.
“Heroes of Chemistry strives for greater recognition
of scientists like these who, like chemistry itself, often
wear a cloak of invisibility so far as public awareness
is concerned,” said Bruce E. Bursten, president of
the American Chemical Society and dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences at the University of
Tennessee, Knoxville. “Their dedication and scientific
contributions save lives and make life healthier and
happier for billions of people around the world.”
Western Colorado gift supports regional
air-ambulance expansion
A project to expand a critical-care
transport program serving western
Colorado and eastern Utah has
received a $500,000 boost from
ExxonMobil.
The contribution will support the
Century Project at St. Mary’s Hospital
and Regional Medical Center in
Grand Junction, Colorado. The project
will expand the capabilities of the
CareFlight program, including moving
its landing pad, hangar, fueling system
and crew quarters to the rooftop
of a new 12-story patient-care addition.
An elevator will deliver patients,
personnel and equipment from the
rooftop directly to new state-of-the-art
trauma and surgical services below.
“ExxonMobil is pleased to support
the Century Project and the
significant enhancements it provides
for CareFlight’s air-ambulance service,”
says James Branch, project
executive of ExxonMobil’s Piceance
Project. “CareFlight is a vital resource
Joel Schaefer, St. Mary’s trauma program medical director,
and CareFlight crew members accept an ExxonMobil contribution
of $500,000 from James Branch (third from left),
project executive for ExxonMobil’s Piceance Project.
for the residents of the West Slope
of Colorado, and our contribution will
help St. Mary’s Hospital continue to
offer the highest quality medical care
to the region.”
The Piceance Project is developing
natural gas reserves in western
Colorado’s Piceance Basin. Phase 1
production startup is expected in
early 2009.
The CareFlight program’s Bell 412
EP twin-engine helicopter, capable of
carrying four patients and four medical
professionals, can access remote
locations and varied terrains.
“CareFlight is an integral part of our
Level Two trauma center, which is the
only major trauma center between
Denver and Salt Lake City,” explains
Joel Schaefer, medical director of the
St. Mary’s trauma program. “Medical
professionals can begin treating
trauma victims on the scene and provide
critical care during transport to
St. Mary’s.”
28

Panorama
Historic LNG terminal installed offshore Italy
The world’s first offshore liquefied
natural gas (LNG) terminal
has been installed off the northeast
coast of Italy.
The Adriatic LNG terminal is
designed to store and regasify
LNG to deliver 775 million
cubic feet of natural gas a day
when it reaches full operational
capacity in 2009. It will be
capable of supplying about
10 percent of Italy’s natural
gas requirements.
Built in Algeciras, Spain,
the terminal was towed some
1,700 miles to its final destination
about 10 miles offshore
Porto Levante, Italy, in the
Adriatic Sea. The tow began
August 30 and was completed
29
The gravity-based Adriatic LNG terminal was
towed some 1,700 miles from Spain to Italy.
September 15.
After its arrival, the gravitybased
structure was lowered to
the seabed in 95 feet of water.
It will be connected by pipeline
to Italy’s natural gas grid.
The Adriatic LNG project
operator is Terminale GNL
Adriatico Srl – owned by
ExxonMobil Italiana Gas 45
percent, Qatar Terminal Limited
(a Qatar Petroleum 100-percent
owned subsidiary) 45 percent
and Edison SpA 10 percent.
LNG supplied by tanker to
the terminal will be manufactured
from natural gas produced
from the North field in
Qatar. The field has resources
of more than 900 trillion cubic
feet of natural gas, making it
the largest nonassociated natural
gas field in the world.
“Italy represents just one of
many nations around the world
that Qatar now has the ability
to deliver natural gas to in
the form of LNG,” says Saad
Al-Kaabi, director oil and gas
ventures for Qatar Petroleum
and chairman of Terminale GNL
Adriatico. “Qatar Petroleum
and ExxonMobil’s long-term
partnership was able to successfully
build this excellent
facility through the application
of industry-leading expertise
and innovative technologies.”
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on our Web site also shows ExxonMobil’s net
interest in specific projects.

Second-quarter earnings
ExxonMobil’s record second-quarter net
income was $11,680 million, with earnings
per share up 21 percent from the
second quarter of 2007. Record crude
oil and natural gas realizations were
partly offset by lower refining and chemical
margins, lower production volumes
and higher operating costs. Net income
for the first half of 2008, also a record,
was up 16 percent versus 2007.
ExxonMobil spent $7 billion on
capital and exploration projects in the
second quarter and $12.5 billion for
the first half of 2008.
On an oil-equivalent basis, production
decreased 8 percent from
the 2007 second quarter. Excluding
impacts related to the Venezuela
expropriation, the Nigeria labor strike
and lower entitlement volumes (which
include price and spend impacts and
production sharing contract net interest
reductions), production was down
about 3 percent.
Upstream earnings were $10,012
million, up $4,059 million from the second
quarter of 2007 on record crude
oil and natural gas realizations.
Downstream earnings of $1,558
million were down $1,835 million from
the second quarter of 2007 as a result
of significantly lower worldwide refining
margins. Petroleum product sales of
6,775 kbd were lower, reflecting asset
sales and lower demand.
Chemical earnings of $687 million
were $326 million lower than the second
quarter of 2007. Lower margins
were partly offset by favorable foreign
exchange and tax effects. Prime product
sales of 6,718 kt (thousands of metric
tons) in the second quarter of 2008
were 179 kt lower than the prior year.
During the second quarter, the
corporation distributed a total of
$10.1 billion to shareholders through
dividends of $2.1 billion and share purchases
to reduce shares outstanding
of $8 billion.
ExxonMobil quarterly financial summary
Second Quarter First Half
Millions of dollars, except per-share amounts 2008 2007 2008 2007
Functional earnings
Upstream $ 10,012 $ 5,953 $ 18,797 $ 11,994
Downstream 1,558 3,393 2,724 5,305
Chemical 687 1,013 1,715 2,249
Corporate and financing (577) (99) (666) (8)
Net income (U.S. GAAP) $ 11,680 $ 10,260 $ 22,570 $ 19,540
Net income per common share
– assuming dilution $ 2.22 $ 1.83 $ 4.25 $ 3.45
Special items $ ($290) $ 0 $ ($290) $ 0
Earnings excluding special items $ 11,970 $ 10,260 $ 22,860 $ 19,540
Other financial data
Total revenues and other income $ 138,072 $ 98,350 $ 254,926 $ 185,573
Income and other taxes $ 32,361 $ 26,143 $ 61,702 $ 50,619
Capital and exploration expenditures $ 6,970 $ 5,039 $ 12,461 $ 9,261
Dividends on common stock $ 2,098 $ 1,961 $ 3,977 $ 3,786
Dividends per common share $ 0.40 $ 0.35 $ 0.75 $ 0.67
Thousands of barrels daily, except for natural gas and chemical
Operating data
Net production of crude oil and
natural gas liquids 2,393 2,668 2,431 2,707
Natural gas production available
for sale (millions of cubic feet daily) 8,448 8,733 9,333 9,419
Oil-equivalent production
(6 million cubic feet = 1 thousand barrels) 3,801 4,123 3,986 4,277
Refinery throughput 5,472 5,279 5,499 5,491
Petroleum product sales 6,775 6,974 6,798 7,085
Chemical prime product sales
(thousands of metric tons) 6,718 6,897 13,296 13,702
30

U.S. energy resources —
part of the solution.
One way to respond to high prices at the pump is to responsibly develop new energy supplies
from a variety of different sources and locations — including right here in the United States.
It is estimated that there is enough oil and natural gas offshore and in non-wilderness lands in
the United States — but currently ruled off-limits for production by the federal government — to
fuel 50 million cars and heat nearly 100 million homes for the next 25 years.
To make these resources available for exploration and production, Congress must act.
The energy industry has developed proven offshore technologies that can safely make
huge resources available to consumers while protecting the environment.
Some claim energy companies are letting lands they lease for oil and
gas development “lay idle.” Not so. Our industry has every incentive —
especially when prices are high — to explore and produce from the limited
areas where we can lease today.
If leased acreage is promising, ExxonMobil is actively producing or
evaluating it. The problem is that industry does not have access to some of
the most promising acreage, so we are attempting to find new supplies from
the limited offerings of the last 10 years.
Drilling is only part of the solution to the energy challenges Americans face. Improved
efficiency and developing other economic energy sources will also be required.
By pursuing an integrated set of solutions, Americans can achieve a prosperous, secure
and responsible energy future.
© 2008 by Exxon Mobil Corporation
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