Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (93 page)

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Authors: Steve Coll

Tags: #General, #Biography & Autobiography, #bought-and-paid-for, #United States, #Political Aspects, #Business & Economics, #Economics, #Business, #Industries, #Energy, #Government & Business, #Petroleum Industry and Trade, #Corporate Power - United States, #Infrastructure, #Corporate Power, #Big Business - United States, #Petroleum Industry and Trade - Political Aspects - United States, #Exxon Mobil Corporation, #Exxon Corporation, #Big Business

BOOK: Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power
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14.
Interviews with executives and analysts familiar with ExxonMobil’s natural gas strategy. Gold:
Wall Street Journal
, July 10, 2009.

15.
New York Times
(
Deal Book Blog
), December 14, 2009.

16.
Conference call transcript, December 14, 2009, produced by ExxonMobil and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

17.
Form S-4, op. cit.; for consulting agreements and compensation, see p. 94.

18.
Business Wire,
February 15, 2011.

19.
“Doubts About Shale Plays: Implications of ExxonMobil Acquisition of XTO Energy,” Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers, February 2010.

20.
New York Times
, July 30, 2010.

21.
Transcript from Chevron Corporation’s 2011 Security Analyst Meeting, March 14, 2011.

22.
Interview with Mark Gilman.

23.
Barclays valuation: Form S-4, op. cit., p. 58. Interviews with former ExxonMobil executives and consultants.

24.
Transcript from ExxonMobil’s Analyst Meeting, March 9, 2011, op. cit.

25.
The Oil Drum,
February 22, 2010.

26.
Memo obtained by the author. Also, interviews with former ExxonMobil executives familiar with the discussions after the XTO deal.

27.
Business Wire,
February 16, 2009.

28.
Financial Times,
February 16, 2011.

29.
Promise to increase production:
Fortune,
July 28, 2006. Actual production in 2009: ExxonMobil 10-K, filed February 26, 2010.

30.
Interviews by Ann O’Hanlon with eight students and World Affairs Council staff who participated.

31.
“The Future of Energy and the Role of Corporate Citizenship,” remarks by Rex Tillerson, April 19, 2010.

32.
“Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling.” Report to the President, National Commission on the B.P. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, January 2011, p. 4.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: “IT JUST HAPPENED”

 

1.
Safina,
A Sea in Flames,
pp. 37–43, and “Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling
,”
Report to the President, National Commission on the B.P. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, January 2011, pp. 8–17.

2.
“Deep Water,” ibid., p. vii.

3.
Ibid., p. 23.

4.
Ibid., pp. 25–26.

5.
Ibid., pp. 28–29.

6.
Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act: Ibid., pp. xl and 58.

7.
U.S. Department of the Interior News,
November 20, 2008: http://www.boemre.gov/ooc/press/2008/pressDOI1120.htm

8.
New York Times,
June 20, 2010.

9.
WEST Engineering Services, “Shear Ram Capabilities Study for U.S. Minerals Management Service,” September 2004.

10.
“Long-term consequences . . . moratorium”: 2008 Obama campaign speech in Florida as quoted in
A Sea in Flames,
p. 46. “I don’t agree . . . very advanced”: “Remarks by the President in the Discussion on Jobs and the Economy in Charlotte, North Carolina,” April, 2, 2010: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-a-discussion-jobs-and-economy-charlotte-north-carolina.

11.
“Gulf of Mexico Regional Oil Spill Response Plan,” ExxonMobil developed by The Response Group, filed with M.M.S.

12.
Hearing on “Drilling Down on America’s Energy Future: Safety, Security, and Clean Energy,” Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, June 15, 2010.

13.
Testimony of Rex Tillerson, ibid.

14.
Chairman Bart Stupak’s Opening Statement, ibid.

15.
Ibid.

16.
“For us . . . cheaper”:
Chief Executive
, April 1, 2001.

17.
National Commission on the B.P. Deepwater Horizon, pp. 50–51, op. cit.

18.
Bower,
Oil,
p. 350.

19.
New York Times,
May 8, 2010.

20.
ABC News,
May 27, 2010.

21.
Safina,
A Sea in Flames,
p. 16.

22.
National Commission on the B.P. Deepwater Horizon, op. cit.

23.
Testimony of Rex Tillerson, Hearing on “Drilling Down on America’s Energy Future” op. cit.

24.
Notes from the Center for Strategic and International Studies dinner, provided to the author by a participant.

25.
Reuters,
January 6, 2011.

26.
“Drilling Down on America’s Energy Future,” op. cit.

27.
Ibid.

28.
Stern, “Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change,” 2007 (final).

29.
http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/climate-in-context-bps-energy-outlook-shines-light-on-future-for-carbon/.

30.
CNN,
July 2, 2011.

31.
Baltimore Sun,
July 1, 2011.

32.
Associated Press,
July 8, 2011;
Jakarta Post,
August 9, 2011. “nothing to do”: E-mail from spokesman David Eglinton to
Upstreamonline.com.

33.
U.S. Geological Survey Newsroom, July 23, 2008.

34.
National Snow and Ice Data Center, Arctic Sea Ice News, nside.org.

35.
“scary to utter”:
New York Times,
August 30, 2011.

36.
Ibid., August 19, 2011.

37.
Negative $5.7 trillion: figure calculated using “Monthly Receipts, Outlays, and Deficit or Surplus, Fiscal Years 1981–2010,” published by the Financial Management Service. Positive $493 billion: ExxonMobil 10-Ks, 2000 to 2010, and 10-Q for the second quarter of 2011. The merger closed November 30, 1999. The corporation’s operating cash flow for December 1999 and the period from July 1 to August 5, 2011, is extrapolated from the average monthly rates of 2000 and the first six months of 2011, respectively.

Bibliography

 

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———.
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DOCUMENTS

 

Alaska Resources Library and Information Services: Transcripts of telephone recordings from the Alyeska Emergency Center, from 4:57 a.m. on March 24, 1989, and on March 26, 1989, and other selected documents.

“Excerpts from the May 31, 2000, ExxonMobil Annual General Meeting.” Transcript produced by Campaign ExxonMobil.

ExxonMobil Transcripts: Transcript of Exxon-Mobil merger press conference, December 1, 1998, and conference call with Emil Jacobs and J. Craig Venter, July 14, 2009.

Exxon Valdez
Oil Spill Trustee Council: 2009 Status Report and other selected documents.

Fair Disclosure: ExxonMobil Analyst Meeting Transcripts, 2000–2011.

“Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Opportunities and Challenges.” Slides presented in Brussels, Belgium, November 25, 2003, author’s files and www.exxonmobil.com/files/PA/Europe/Blewisfinal_Amcham.pdf.

“Operations Integrity Management System.” www.exxonmobil.com, examined and typed, June 24, 2010.

Records of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, July 15, 2004, investigation of Riggs National Bank.

Records of the Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR database. www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

Securities and Exchange Commission. “Concept Release on Possible Revisions to the Disclosure Requirements Relating to Oil and Gas Reserves,” December 12, 2007.

United Nations Human Development Reports, 1993–2010. http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Books, “Future of Iraq Project.” http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB198/index.htm.

www.exxonmobil.com, including Exxon, Mobil, and ExxonMobil Annual Reports, 1997–2010, and ExxonMobil’s Chad/Cameroon Development Project Updates.

JOURNAL ARTICLES, REPORTS, AND MANUSCRIPTS

 

“Aceh Under Martial Law: Inside the Secret War.” Human Rights Watch, December 2003.

“All the Presidents’ Men: The Devastating Story of Oil and Banking in Angola’s Privatized War.” Global Witness, January 2002.

“Balancing Natural Gas Policy: Fueling the Demands of a Growing Economy.” National Petroleum Council, September 2003. http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/publications/npc/03gasstudy/npcgas03_preface.pdf.

“Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment.” Report of an Ad Hoc Study Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate, July 23–27, 1979. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

“Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project: Overview.” World Bank, December 2006.

Cohen, Arile, and Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. “The Road to Economic Prosperity for a Post–Saddam Iraq.” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder no. 1594, September 24, 2002.

“Crude Awakening: The Role of the Oil and Banking Industries in Angola’s Civil War and the Plunder of State Assets, A.” Global Witness, 1999.

Davis, Stephen. “The Potential for Peace and Reconciliation in the Niger Delta.” Coventry Cathedral, February 2009.

“Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling
.”
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“Defense Management: Actions Needed to Address Stakeholder Concerns, Improve Interagency Collaboration, and Determine Full Costs Associated with the U.S. Africa Command.” General Accounting Office, February 2009.

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“Force Structure: Preliminary Observations on the Progress and Challenges Associated with Establishing the U.S. Africa Command.” General Accounting Office, July 2008.

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Gary, Ian, and Terry Lynn Karl. “Bottom of the Barrel: Africa’s Oil Boom and the Poor.” Catholic Relief Services, June 2003.

———, and Nikki Reisch. “Chad’s Oil: Miracle or Mirage; Following the Money in Africa’s Newest Petro-State.” Catholic Relief Services, February 2005.

“The Global Energy Market: Comprehensive Strategies to Meet Geopolitical and Financial Risks—The G8, Energy Security, and Global Climate Issues.” Baker Institute, Houston, Report no. 37, July 2008.

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