How exactly do you catch COVID-19? There is a growing consensus.ĬOVID-19 drug remdesivir to cost $3,120 for typical patient. Bennett left Exxon in 1995, well before the XTO deal, but maintains the company’s accounting of the acquisition fits with its past practice of handling assets that might be worth less than anticipated.Īn expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com. 78j(b), and SEC Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder (securities fraud) and (3) 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C. authorities, they argue that the company is deceiving investors by failing to write down much of the value of XTO Energy Inc., a natural-gas driller it purchased for $31 billion a decade ago, along with other assets.Įxxon’s refusal to write down its acquisition of XTO is part of an “arrogant, aberrant, long-standing…posture” at the company, said one of the accountants, Franklin Bennett, a former senior accounting analyst in Exxon’s oil and gas business, in a complaint filed under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower program that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Several oil and gas accounting experts allege that Exxon’s reticence to adjust the value of shale assets on its balance sheet amounts to accounting fraud. The company was also accused of improperly removing climate change risks from business calculations, including impairments a court ruled that Exxon did not commit fraud.Has yet to write down any shale assets this year, holding to a belief that oil and gas values will eventually rebound. Instead, it said it is dropping "less strategic assets" from its plans.Įxxon has been criticized over the years for opting not to write down assets, with its natural gas assets recently singled out for particular scrutiny. The company argues it makes investments based on long-term strategies that are not affected by short-term prices.Īnd while some companies are starting to factor in long-term reductions in oil demand due to climate action, Exxon maintains that demand for petroleum will remain robust even as climate concerns mount.Įven now, as it announces its largest-ever impairments, Exxon is not attributing the change to any underlying shift in price forecasts. But Exxon has long been an outlier, maintaining its plans are unchanged despite the adjustments made by its rivals. ![]() Taking such projects off the books is called an impairment, or a write-down.Įnergy The End Of Oil? Battle Lines Drawn As Industry Grapples With Energy's Futureįor many companies that's a routine accounting practice after a price drop. Since Exxon Mobil spent 42 billion on the XTO deal in 2010 to purchase natural gas assets and has only written down 2.5 billion according to the Chief Energy Correspondent at Bloomberg News. These include our Annual Report on Form 10-K Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q Current Reports on Form 8-K the proxy statement and any additional soliciting material for our annual meeting of. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That's because companies make investments based on predicted commodity prices, and price drops can make a planned project suddenly unprofitable. As a public company, ExxonMobil files reports and registration statements with the U.S. Many oil companies announced write-downs this year after oil and gas prices dropped sharply because of the pandemic. (For more on OPEC's deliberations, click the play button above.) ![]() ![]() The news comes as OPEC, the powerful cartel of oil producers, is deliberating whether to extend dramatic production cuts in light of the prolonged economic effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. were acquired a decade ago when Exxon struck a poorly timed $41 billion deal to expand its natural gas holdings. The assets are located in the U.S., Canada and Argentina, according to an announcement released Monday afternoon. plans to write down $17 billion to $20 billion in natural gas assets in the largest such announcement the company has ever made. Below is the annual summary of oil reserves for Exxon Mobil Corporation. announced up to $20 billion in write-downs of natural gas assets, the biggest such action ever by the company.Īfter insisting for months that its oil and gas investments remain as valuable as ever, Exxon Mobil Corp. According to the Securities Exchange and Commission (SEC), oil companies are. ![]() An Exxon station in Hicksville, N.Y., in March.
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