---
product_id: 8376263
title: "Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power"
brand: "steve coll"
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# Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power

**Brand:** steve coll
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Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    To Peers in Tonengeneral
  

*by M***I on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 26, 2012*

How are you doing? ExxonMobil is going to leave from Japan where they have done business for more than 100 years. Tonengeneral is being pressed to reshape it's organization into the one corresponding to the Japanese market. You have to get through raging waves with collected wisdom of you all, and find a secure position in the Japanese oil business circle. It would be challenging but worthwhile job for the future of the company. Recently I found an interesting book, which I recommend you to read, titled "Private Empire" written by Steve Coll. The ExxonMobil merger of twelve years ago forced the Japanese organization of drastic restructuring, it was a good opportunity for us to consider it's survivability though. Other Japanese companies followed our trails without delay. Like "the Quest by Daniel Yergin," this book also pointed out that the review of operation in Japan triggered the merger. Raymond is said to raise the possibility of a minor deal to combine Exxon and Mobil refinery operations in Japan to Noto who replied with "that and other things." Was it because ROCE of Tonen, each of Exxon and Mobil had 25.5% of it's share, could not attain their expectations of more than 20%. Or they felt an urgent necessity to liquidate internally reserved capitals in the Japanese marketing organization for other projects. The book doesn't disclose the true reason, however. Being placed under Singapore within the Asian pacific block evoked additional difficulty to the Japanese organization when they watched for an opportunity of being a top runner in Japanese oil business world. Coll wrote ExxonMobil enjoyed a top reputation among oil companies in only one country, Singapore. If Japanese government thought about Japanese energy policy seriously and set in advance suitable regulations to self-willed actions by oil companies, the Japanese organization would not be forced to loose their hold on a control stick when they fly high of attaining more than 60% of volume and profit in the Asian pacific region.The book divides into two part, the first part for Raymond and the second for Tillerson respectively. Featured personnel in this book, in ExxonMobil managerial position, are mostly new to you except Raymond and Tillerson. Coll put spot lights on exploring and lobbying divisions to scoop the core nature of the company. Coll titled this book as "Private Empire" and subtitled as "ExxonMobil and American Power." He tried to depict a private empire like corporation, sometimes competed with, and other times embodied of American power. ExxonMobil's reach and influence continued to exceed those of world's midsize governments in the world economy. Everything they did, the numbers were huge, in making profit, in paying tax. They continued exploration and production in countries where resource nationalism was gaining powers. They boldly challenged to every criticism with every tactics they had to protect shareholders' money. Employees called their head quarter in Irving as the "Death Star."  Both Raymond and Tillerson carried out big merger in their tenure. Raymond directed the merger with Mobil, while Tillerson acquired XTO, a leading producer of shale and unconventional gas. It's too early to judge a positive effect of XTO. We are probably safe in thinking ExxonMobil took preparatory steps toward unconventional gas, where they and international competitors had missed the mother-lode lying beneath American soil. Everyday newspapers report indications that shale gas revolution rewrites the world's supply and demand balance. It is worthy of notice whether ExxonMobil is going to shift it's portfolio to gas main business, or not. Randall, who acted middleman with XTO, had a personal tie to Tillerson, they had belonged to the same marching band fraternity at the university of Texas. On the other hand, being a honeymoon relations between the Raymonds and the Cheneys, made ExxonMobil move smoothly within Bush administrations.When Raymond took over the management of Exxon, he experienced two big incidents, the grounding of Valdez and the kidnapping of Reso, a president of oil and gas exploration and production outside of North America, who was murdered in the end. These disasters turned one of America's oldest, most rigid corporations into an even harder, leaner place of rule books and fear-inspiring management techniques. It led to a creating OIMS/CIMS, strengthening security division and implementing employee ranking system. Raymond integrated the new corporate safety rules into an intensified top-down culture of command management emanating from Exxon headquarters. Employees had to begin with a "safety minutes" as receptive as the routines of commercial flight attendants before takeoff. The ranking system, as you know well of, analogous to natural selection, hardened Exxon's culture and wrote the corporation's DNA. Coll rote ExxonMobil led in its upper management ranks by people who were not only supporters of the OIMS reforms, but true believers. When the merger took place, oil companies were getting hard pressure from the stock market. While the oil price hit the bottom, the declining figures of the booked reserves deteriorated the value of oil companies' stocks. The size of booked reserves only allowed shareholders to estimate future profits with relatively high confidence. The replacement of resource stocks was fundamental to keep the company from sinking. By merger with Mobil, Exxon attained big increase in the booked reserves. Raymond said Qatar alone was probably valuable enough to justify the full Mobil merger price, all its oil and gas fields in Africa, Asia, and Soviet Union were a bonus. However, he also acquired a small war. It was a conflict that Mobil had been struggling with for decades. Noto said his nightmare was to pick up the New York Times and read that both Nigeria and Indonesia were in flames. After the merger Raymond was forced to face directly with the prevailing resource nationalism within these developing countries. Countries offering drilling rights involved various internal conflicts, racial matters, and human right violation problems. ExxonMobil kept pretending indifferent to those issues. The issues of concern to ExxonMobil were largely limited to the production of oil and the sanctity of contracts. If it's oil flowed and it's contract terms remained interacts, then ExxonMobil often followed a directive of minimal interference in local politics. As long as it's property and employees weren't put in danger, they rejected the interference by the American government and ran their business in low profile. ExxonMobil did not demand anything from the American government, but it did not want the government to do anything to the company, either. They withdrew into the hard shell and never disclosed anything related to the company. Coll introduced a episode of the ExxonMobil management who only quoted publicized BP's figures at every outside company events. Raymond's belief seems to be solid at any time. He promoted free trade, open markets, low taxes, maximized oil production everywhere, that filled the global pool with as much new oil as possible, and thus kept global oil prices low, to benefit of American economy. Amusing parts in this book would be ExxonMobil's various activities in Indonesia, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Nigeria, Qatar, Iraq, and Soviet Union, which were not informed to us fully at that time. It would be a good chance for us, who only know domestic activity, to see the other side of the company, including actual performance by the security division.When Raymond dominated the company, oil companies were compelled to tackle with a global warming issue and a clean energy policy. Doc. Raymond believed fossil fuels would be central to the energy economy for the foreseeable future from the reason alternatives to oil were not economically competitive. He insisted evidence about man-made climate change was an illusion and that a binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was therefore unnecessary. His opinion had borne fruit, the Outlook for Energy : A View to 2030, which you knew well. He opposed every steps by governments to reduce oil consumption as it would curtail economic growth resultantly. Instead he simply predicted an endless rise in the demand for the fossil fuels his company sells, and maintained that there was nothing that could be done to alter that. To decide the successor of Raymond had a rough passage. Raymond told the board that the most important quality his successor would require was toughness-the ability to stand up to governments, pressure groups, environmentalists, and special pleaders of all types. Galante had supporters on the board until the final decision was made. Tillerson basically followed Raymond's footsteps. However, as the American politics shifted to the democrats, the corporation subtly slid into a new positions. Tillerson carefully reset the corporation's profile on climate positions so that it would be more sustainable and less exposed. The corporation acknowledged, for the first time, that it would be sound public policy, nonetheless, to limit man-made greenhouse gas emissions to at least some extent, because of the potential risk that the worst climate change forecast might prove to be correct. ExxonMobil believed the predictability of a progressive carbon tax would encourage new investment in carbon reduction technology, which would protect shareholders' properties eventually. Tillerson was exposed to hard protests than before from consumers who longed for safety and clean environment. Coll took up two cases in this book, a gasoline spill from the underground tank of Jacksonville service station and DINP disputes. DINP, which was used to soften vinyl toys for children, might interfere with the development of reproductive organs if very young children were exposed as their bodies developed. Coll revealed interesting reality among ExxonMobil. One thing is the retail gasoline stations had always been an unglamorous stepchild division within ExxonMobil. And the other is upstream dwarfed chemical, and the latter's executives often labored in the shadows of their oil brethren. The almost all pages of this book was allocated for the upstream activities. The corporation declared to be willing to pay for declining property values and proven medical claims, including documented emotional distress in principal. Nonetheless, once the verdict was in, ExxonMobil rejected the jury's decision and defied it would appeal. They said It's not their money, it's not the company's, it's shareholders'.There was a rumor Raymond being henpecked husband. The book didn't say anything like that. Raymond and Charlene kept separate bedrooms, in part because he snored, but mainly because he stayed up until about midnight to read and make up his files. His life was the company itself. In the intervals of his business he enjoyed golfing and game hunting. Tillerson experienced a divorce and remarriage during his early career, was fond of the boy scout activity. He frequently cited the Scout Oath and Scout Law in corporate speeches. Was it demands of times, Tillerson who had background of upstream had to struggle with issues of downstream while Raymond who specialized in downstream business spared much his efforts to upstream matters. To evaluate Tillerson's achievement would be too early at this stage. Is ExxonMobil's total portfolio shifting away from oil toward gas. On the other hand, how does Tonengeneral write unique scenario to survive these times. This book would give you some valuable hints. I am expecting you doing your best to grow your company.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Superb sleuthing within a secretive empire
  

*by K***K on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 24, 2012*

Steve Coll, with a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Security and Exchange Commission and another Pulitzer for his book on the CIA in Afghanistan, together with his book THE TAKING OF GETTY OIL, is superbly qualified to peek behind ExxonMobil's curtain of secrecy. He had to crack "a corporate system of secrecy, nondisclosure agreements, and internal security that matched some of the most compartmentalized black boxes of the world's intelligence agencies."  Mr. Coll chose to focus on ExxonMobil in the post-Cold War era. Daniel Yergin's THE PRIZE provides keen insights into the rough-and-tumble global oil industry during the preceding century. Utilizing over 400 interviews, exhaustive documentary research (including Wikileak telegrams), and personal visits to ExxonMobil facilities around the world, Mr. Coll provides a coherent and credible picture of how this ccmpany functioned under CEOs Lee "Iron Ass" Raymond (1993-2005) and Rex Tillerson (2006-). The nature of ExxonMobil was clearly expressed by Raymond: "I'm not a U. S. company and I don't make decisions based on what is good for the U. S." and "Presidents come and go; Exxon doesn't come and go."  Exxon was driven by a long-term necessity to replace and expand its long-term proven oil and gas reserves and to maintain a high return on investments This was becoming increasingly difficult in the post-Cold War world. It triggered the blockbuster acquisitions of Mobil in 1998 and, for its anticipated gas reserves, XTO in 2010.  The search for new reserves rendered ExxonMobil increasingly dependent on volatile and often corrupt areas ranging from Aceh in Indonesia to Chad and Equatorial Guinea in Africa. ExxonMobil maintained a pragmatic position towards 'human rights' and corruption in these areas while often benefiting from U. S. government direct and indirect support. Quite frequently U. S. officials would subsequently become ExxonMobil employees.  ExxonMobil operated at the highest levels, whether in Russia or in Washington. For example, in the aftermath of the 1989 Exxon Valdez  Alaskan oil spill, Raymond, after a chat with President H. W. Bush, swiftly scuppered Coast Guard Commandant Paul Yost's urgent demand for an additional 5000 people to clean up the beaches.  ExxonMobil was managed with military discipline. Headquarters controlled both policy and specific details, often with PowerPoint slides. Given Raymond's total rejection of climate change arguments, ExxonMobil Washington lobbyists adhered to this position with lock-step precision. Later, when CEO Tillerson found it necessary to alter this position and even express moderate support for a carbon tax, Exxon's Washington apparatcheks immediately did a 180.  The BP Deepwater Horizon massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 involved, by association, other major oil companies, including ExxonMobil. Though the company had significantly enhanced its safety measures after the Exxon Valdez catastrophe, this was an example of how 'Big Oil' would be blamed, even though the immediate culprit was BP and its service contractors.  Mr. Coll has written a highly readable and amazingly detailed account of how ExxonMobil, one of the largest global companies, functions often as an entity unto itself. I recall various instances when the U. S. government accommodated ExxonMobil's interests. I can not recall an occasion when the opposite occurred. I do not conclude from Mr. Coll's account that ExxonMobil is a 'bad' company. In fact, it seems well run and has been highly profitable for decades. Nonetheless, it is a 800 pound gorilla and is perfectly capable of throwing its weight around, whether in Washington or elsewhere.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Good grasp of subject and broader international and political context
  

*by B***Y on Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 17, 2017*

Good grasp of subject and broader international and political context, exhaustive interviewing of interested parties, clear prose style and to thepoint analysis.

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