ExxonMobil, an American multinational oil and gas corporation presently based out of Texas, has had one of the longest histories of any company in its industry. A direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the company traces its roots as far back as 1886 to the founding of the Vacuum Oil Company, which would become part of ExxonMobil through its own merger with Mobil during the 1930s. The present name of the company comes from a 1999 merger of Standard Oil's New Jersey and New York successors, which adopted the names Exxon and Mobil respectively throughout the middle of the 20th century. Because of Standard Oil of New Jersey's ownership over all Standard Oil assets at the time of the 1911 breakup, ExxonMobil is seen by some as the definitive continuation of Standard Oil today.
Today, ExxonMobil is the largest investor-owned oil and gas company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company is frequently included near the top of the Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500, and trails only Saudi Aramco in market capitalization among all the world's energy firms.
Standard Oil (1870–1911)
Origins
Both Exxon and Mobil were descendants of Standard Oil, established by John D. Rockefeller and partners in 1870 as the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. In 1882, it together with its affiliated companies was incorporated as the Standard Oil Trust with Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and Standard Oil Company of New York as its largest companies. The Anglo-American Oil Company was established in the United Kingdom in 1888. In 1890, Standard Oil, together with local ship merchants in Bremen established Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum Gesellschaft (later: Esso A.G.). In 1891, a sale branch for the Netherlands and Belgium, American Petroleum Company, was established in Rotterdam. At the same year, a sale branch for Italy, Società Italo Americana pel Petrolio, was established in Venice.
Scrutiny and litigation
The Standard Oil Trust was dissolved under the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1892; however, it reemerged as the Standard Oil Interests. In 1893, the Chinese and the whole Asian kerosene market was assigned to Standard Oil Company of New York in order to improve trade with the Asian counterparts. In 1898, Standard Oil of New Jersey acquired controlling stake in Imperial Oil of Canada. In 1899, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey became the holding company for the Standard Oil Interests.
The anti-monopoly proceedings against the Standard Oil were launched in 1898. The reputation of Standard Oil in the public eye suffered badly after publication of Ida M. Tarbell's classic exposé The History of the Standard Oil Co. in 1904, leading to a growing outcry for the government to take action against the company. By 1911, with public outcry at a climax, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States that Standard Oil must be dissolved and split into 34 companies, with two of them becoming Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (Jersey Standard for short) and Standard Oil of New York (Socony for short).
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (1911–1999)
Jersey Standard (1911–1973) Over the next few decades, Jersey Standard grew significantly. John Duston Archbold was the first president of Jersey Standard. Archbold was followed by Walter C. Teagle in 1917, who made it the largest oil company in the world. In 1919, Jersey Standard acquired a 50% share in Humble Oil & Refining Co., a Texas oil producer. In 1920, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In the following years it acquired or established Tropical Oil Company of Colombia (1920), Standard Oil Company of Venezuela (1921), and Creole Petroleum Company of Venezuela (1928).
In the Asia-Pacific region, Jersey Standard has established through its Dutch subsidiary an exploration and production company Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij in 1912. In 1922, it found oil in Indonesia and in 1927, it built a refinery in Sumatra. It had oil production and refineries but no marketing network.