Darren Woods

Darren Woods was elected Chairman and CEO of the world's largest publicly traded international oil and gas company in January 2017. Exxon has struggled to increase output and profits in recent years, but revenues are ticking up in 2018 along with the price of crude oil. Woods joined Exxon in 1992 as a planning analyst and was appointed a vice president of Exxon Mobil Corporation in 2012 Major oil companies ExxonMobil and Shell revealed initial damage assessments on Wednesday related to their Persian Gulf operations. ExxonMobil rolled out a new strategic plan on Tuesday that cuts 1/3rd of planned low carbon spending. The shift reflects a rapid recalibration in energy policy. In a joint letter, U.S. Energy Sec. Chris Wright and Qatar Affairs Minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi warned EU leaders their new law would threaten future LNG investments. ExxonMobil sued California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups alleging tortious interference with its plastic recycling business. Amid widespread skepticism about the future expansion of the hydrogen industry, ExxonMobil certainly is not having trouble attracting investors in its Baytown hub. ExxonMobil chairman and CEO Darren Woods and lead independent board member Joseph Hooley sailed to easy re-elections to the company’s Board of Directors Wednesday. A proxy battle is looming for ExxonMobil's annual meeting next week, and the motivations behind it reek of politics. Activist investors' response to Exxon's attempt to seek legal clarity on shareholder resolutions shows they prioritize political considerations over sound management. The fight between pro and anti-ESG forces is unlikely to be over soon and may even just be beginning. But there is hope that rationality might prevail. One of the energy industry's most important conferences convenes in Houston next week with industry and policy leaders from around the world on the agenda. Exxon CEO Darren Woods laid out his recently challenged his internal staff to double the company’s per-well recoveries in its U.S. shale operations in five years. Another active week in the energy space ended with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the CEO of ExxonMobil, Darren Woods, was having to waste his time arguing with officials at the U.S. Department of Energy about limits on exports of oil and natural gas. In a historic rebuke of CEO Darren Woods’ lackluster attempts to ameliorate ExxonMobil’s vast carbon footprint, shareholders at the company’s annual meeting yesterday voted to replace two of their 12 board members with nominees backed by the tiny Engine No. 1 activist hedge fund.