ExxonMobil’s “defense”: Natural gas
About seven years ago, I watched a television interview of Rex Tillerson, CEO and chairman of ExxonMobil. I was surprised by his brusque dismissal of questions relating to climate change and alternative fuels. Tillerson made it very clear that ExxonMobil’s core business is oil exploration and that would remain ExxonMobil’s primary activity under his leadership.
While I was taken aback by his apparent insensitivity to what has become the leading issue of our time, and I was a bit saddened to learn his outright refusal to even consider the notion of leadership in energy sources other than oil, I did admire his plainspoken and straightforward manner.
I never forgot that interview, which left me with the impression that Tillerson was tone deaf to the necessity and urgency of implementing alternative fuels. So I was a bit disheartened when I read the Nov. 5 New York Times’ lead story: “ExxonMobil Investigated for Possible Climate Change Lies by New York Attorney General.”
The Times reported that New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman began an investigation of ExxonMobil about a year ago to determine whether the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change or to investors about how such risks might hurt the oil business. Schneiderman was acting upon the authority conferred upon him by the Martin Act, a N.Y. state law that gives him broad powers to investigate financial fraud. Schneiderman is focused on what ExxonMobil told investors about the risks that climate change might pose to its business. The Martin Act doesn’t require the attorney general to prove that a company intended to defraud, only that its information was inaccurate or not disclosed. The law forbids “any fraud, deception, concealment, suppression, false pretense” or “any representation or statement which is false.”
Legal experts expect other state attorneys general to join in.
“This could open up years of litigation and settlements in the same way that tobacco litigation did, also spearheaded by attorneys general,” said Brandon L. Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. “In some ways, the theory is similar — that the public was misled about something dangerous to health. Whether the same smoking guns will emerge, we don’t know yet.”
In the 1950s and ’60s, tobacco companies financed internal research showing tobacco to be harmful and addictive, but mounted a public campaign that said otherwise and helped fund scientific research later shown to be dubious. In 2006, the companies were found guilty of “a massive 50-year scheme to defraud the public.”
But the history at ExxonMobil appears to differ, in that the company published extensive research over decades that largely lined up with mainstream climatology. Thus, any potential fraud prosecution might depend on exactly how big a role the company executives can be shown to have played in directing campaigns of climate denial. For several years, some financial experts have been warning that fossil fuel companies might be overvalued in the stock market, since the need to limit climate change might require that much of their coal, oil and natural gas be left in the ground. More recently, Inside Climate News and The Los Angeles Times have reported that ExxonMobil was well aware of the risks of climate change from its own scientific research, and used that research in its long-term planning for activities like drilling in the Arctic, even as it funded groups from the 1990s to the mid-2000s that denied serious climate risks.
While the attorney general investigation didn’t shock me, I was a bit surprised when Kenneth P. Cohen, vice president of public affairs at ExxonMobil, noted that his company had become the largest producer of natural gas in the United States. He in effect was saying that whatever may be uncovered in the investigation, ExxonMobil is a leader in natural gas, a recognized alternative fuel. Cohen stated that because natural gas creates far less carbon dioxide than coal when burned for electricity, the company expects to be a prime beneficiary of President Obama’s plan to limit emissions. All of this is, of course, contrary to the statements made by Rex Tillerson in that television interview.
I’m not sure whether ExxonMobil can be considered a “leader” in natural gas. The company is clearly a major investor, but claiming it is an alternative fuel leader is a bit of a stretch. I spoke with several natural gas businessmen since the Times article, and none of them gave ExxonMobil high marks on natural gas leadership. ExxonMobil became the largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. as a result of its 2010 acquisition of a Fort Worth, Texas company called XTO Energy, Inc. in a deal valued at $36 billion. The acquisition increased ExxonMobil’s U.S. natural gas production to 3.68 billion cubic feet per day, making it the largest producer in the country.
XTO was founded in 1986. Extracting natural gas from shale and other tight formations is its principal business. XTO is the nation’s largest holder of natural gas reserves, and has one of the highest drilling success rates in the industry. XTO operates throughout the United States, including Pennsylvania and Ohio and owns interests in approximately 40,000 producing oil and natural gas wells across the country.
Regarding ExxonMobil’s Appalachian activities, in June 2011 the company acquired two natural gas companies in Pennsylvania — Phillips Resources Inc. and TWP Inc. — for $1.69 billion, which are now managed by XTO.
The acquisition added about 317,000 acres in Marcellus Shale to ExxonMobil’s portfolio. During 2013, XTO expanded its production in the Appalachian region by nearly 30 percent. In February 2014, XTO agreed to let American Energy-Utica LLC buy into 30,000 acres of its holdings in the Utica Shale located in the Ohio counties of Harrison, Jefferson and Belmont. The size of XTO’s U.S. resource portfolio had tripled since it was acquired.
It will be interesting to see how the N.Y. attorney general investigation unfolds.
But it is refreshing to learn that ExxonMobil recognizes the value of natural gas — if not for alternative energy reasons — then at least as a potential de facto defense.
David Pearl is vice president of Infinity Resource Group, Inc., a professional mineral rights consulting firm, specializing in the leasing and sale of mineral rights in PA, WV and OH. He is also managing director of a natural gas fuel dispensing patent holding company and director of a natural gas fuel island development company. Your questions are welcomed by calling 412-535-9200 or by emailing . IRGOilGas@gmail.com.