Portal:Global Corporations/Article of the week
ExxonMobil is the world's largest integrated oil company, engaged in oil and gas exploration, production, supply, transportation, and marketing around the world. It has proved reserves of just less than 21 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Exxon Mobil's refineries can handle more than 6 million barrels per day, and the company supplies refined products to more than 40,000 service stations in 118 countries that operate under the Exxon, Esso, and Mobil brands (including more than 16,000 in the US).
According to a recent study by the US Union of Concerned Scientists, has spent more than $19 million to promote skepticism about global warming, funding think tanks, publications and web sites that are not peer reviewed by the scientific community. The company is also responsible for environmental disasters including the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
With regard to human rights, ExxonMobil has been associated with serious violations related to its Chad-Cameroon oil project and pipeline, and in Indonesia the company is being sued by plaintiffs who allege that they suffered human rights violations at the hands of Indonesian military that was hired by ExxonMobil to provide security for its natural gas facilities. Plaintiffs allege that ExxonMobil hired these troops knowing they would likely engage in massive human rights violations against the local population.