#oilandgas

Is it prudent to permit a BL favorite and boosted sycophant the opportunity to repair a broken organizational structure? BP is complex by design and by intent. Creative ideas and processes that are successful at other operating companies are frowned upon and sabotaged from the get go. Yet other operating companies that manage ex BP assets do so at a profit and discover and exploit the uplift left behind by people like GB

June 1, 2026 · Contributor
ExxonMobil has suspended operations at one of its chemical manufacturing plants in Singapore, citing unfavorable market conditions, according to report in local media. The decision to mothball the unit removes 900,000 metric tons per year of ethylene production capacity from the market.

ExxonMobil’s Singapore complex operates two steam cr--kers with a combined annual ethylene production capacity of 1.9 million metric tons. Cr--ker No. 2, which remains in operation, has capacity of 1 million metric tons per year.

The U.S.-based energy major said the affected facility is Cr--ker No. 1, one of two steam cr--kers it operates in Singapore. The unit, which began operations in 2002, has an annual ethylene production capacity of 900,000 metric tons.

“We will continue to work with our customers to meet their needs by leveraging our global asset base and product inventory. If market conditions improve, we have the capability to restart the unit,” the company said.

The shutdown highlights the pressure facing petrochemical producers as challenging market conditions continue to weigh on manufacturing economics. While ExxonMobil has idled the unit, the company indicated that the facility could be restarted if market conditions improve.

Ethylene is a key petrochemical building block used to manufacture a wide range of products, including synthetic lubricants and lubricant additives. In the lubricants sector, ethylene-derived materials are used in the production of certain synthetic base stocks, viscosity modifiers and performance additives that help improve efficiency, durability and temperature performance.

https://www.lubesngreases.com/lubereport-americas/11_22/weak-market-pushes-exxon-to-shut-singapore-cr--ker/

https://easternherald.com/2026/06/13/chevron-8000-layoffs-hess-acquisition-2026/

Any big announcements planned for the upstream/downstream meeting on Wednesday?

A general thread on who is hiring in O&G nowadays?

Lee Raymond, Who Created Exxon Mobil, Dies at 87

He oversaw Exxon’s acquisition of a rival, cut costs relentlessly and denied the scientific consensus on climate change.

Lee Raymond, the chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., at a news conference in 2005. A former high school debating champion, he was known for making withering remarks to those who challenged him.

Lee R. Raymond, who as chief executive of Exxon Mobil wrung out costs to make that global oil company the most profitable in its industry while stoutly resisting the scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels was causing a potentially disastrous warming of the Earth, died on Saturday in Dallas. He was 87.

His death, at a hospital, was confirmed by his son Colin, who said the cause was complications of pneumonia. Mr. Raymond’s agreement in 1998 to acquire Mobil — a transaction valued at about $81 billion, then the largest corporate merger ever — created the world’s biggest private-sector oil company in terms of annual
sales, operating in 200 countries. The deal reunited the two biggest parts of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil

Trust, sundered in 1911 by federal trust busters in an effort to spur competition. During his reign as chief executive, from 1993 to 2005, Mr. Raymond relentlessly cut costs, including eliminating a third of the executive jobs after the merger, and helped boost net income to $36.13 billion from $4.8 billion. The company’s market value increased fourfold to $375 billion.

Mr. Raymond shunned publicity. There was no discernible effort to make him seem endearing or personable to the general public or even to his own employees. He was known for making withering remarks in response to questions from employees or investment analysts. “What you’re hearing today may seem boring,” he said at an analyst meeting in March 2005. “You’ll just have to live with outstanding, consistent financial and operating performance.”

At company headquarters in Irving, Texas, he worked in a hushed office suite known as the God Pod, where a painting of a tiger hung behind his desk. Some employees nicknamed him “Iron A-s,” according to “Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power,” a 2012 book by the journalist Steve Coll.

Before Mr. Raymond became chief executive, his biggest public role was taking charge of the company’s response after the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in March 1989. The accident spilled 11 million gallons of crude and blackened 1,500 miles of coastline. Mr. Raymond, then Exxon’s president, oversaw the cleanup and, in 1991, helped negotiate a $1 billion settlement of federal and state legal charges arising from the spill. He accused environmentalists and politicians in Alaska of making the disaster worse by refusing to let Exxon spray chemical dispersants on the oil slick shortly after the spill.

In 1994, a federal jury in Anchorage ordered Exxon to pay $5 billion in punitive damages to about 34,000 fishermen and other Alaskans who said they were harmed by the spill. Exxon appealed, leading to another 14 years of litigation.

In a 2008 Supreme Court ruling, the damages were reduced to $500 million.
In the early 2000s, as BP and Chevron courted public favor by touting their investments in alternative energy sources, Exxon took a hard line against government restrictions on fossil fuels and funded research challenging the consensus on global warming.
Mr. Raymond, a former high school debating champion who had a Ph.D. degree in chemical engineering, considered himself a scientist with standing to question that consensus. In a 2005 interview with the public television host Charlie Rose, Mr. Raymond said there was a “natural variability” to temperatures on Earth over
millenniums. “If we weren’t here, the climate would change,” Mr. Raymond said. “It has to do with sunspots, it has to do with the wobble of the Earth, and it has — there are all kinds of things that come and go. If you talk to a geologist, he will tell you the Earth, over its history, has been much warmer than it is now and much colder.”

Because wind, solar and other alternative energy sources were costly and could not replace oil and gas in the near term, he argued, Exxon should focus on finding and pumping more oil, including, if possible, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Environmentalists regularly denounced Exxon. “There is a spectrum of corporate behavior on global warming and Exxon is the epitome of denial and deception,” Kert Davies, then the research director at Greenpeace USA, told The New York Times in 2005.

Mr. Raymond also resisted corporate trends toward greater acceptance of g-y rights. After Exxon acquired Mobil, the combined company rescinded Mobil policies banning discrimination on the basis of s-xual orientation and ended a practice of providing benefits to same-s-x partners. The moves prompted some g-y and le----n drivers to boycott Exxon service stations.

Under Mr. Raymond’s successor, Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil adopted more inclusive policies and acknowledged that human activity contributed to climate change.
Mr. Raymond seemed unbothered by the unpopularity of his views. “I’ve never had a focus group to decide what my persona is out there,” he told The Wall Street Journal in 1997.

Nor did he wish to discuss his personal life. During a court hearing on the Valdez oil spill in the 1990s, an Exxon lawyer asked Mr. Raymond to sum up his background. “I hope this doesn’t get too boring,” Mr. Raymond said. “It kind of bores me.”

Mr. Raymond, center, addressed shareholders during an Exxon annual meeting in 1989. Nine years later, he oversaw the agreement to acquire Mobil.

Lee Roy Raymond was born in Watertown, S.D., on Aug. 13, 1938. His father, Clifford, a railroad engineer, encouraged the young man’s studious ways. In the 1997 interview, Mr. Raymond recalled his father’s alluding to a lack of opportunities in South Dakota and saying, “You have to get an education and get out of here.” After excelling in high school debate and extemporaneous speaking, Mr. Raymond enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and graduated in 1960 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.

He married Charlene Hocevar in 1961. They had three children, male triplets.
In addition to his wife and son Colin, he is survived by two other sons, John and Rob; and seven grandchildren. Mr. Raymond earned his doctorate in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota in 1963 and joined Exxon the same year as a production research engineer in Tulsa, Okla. He later headed operations in Venezuela. In the mid-1970s, he impressed his bosses by turning an unprofitable refinery in Aruba into a
reliable source of profits.

After returning to the United States, he headed Exxon’s nuclear power business and oversaw the sale of a subsidiary selling office equipment, including Qyx electronic typewriters.

During his 12 years as chairman and chief executive, his compensation totaled more than $686 million, or $144,573 a day, according to an analysis done for The Times by Brian Foley, an independent compensation consultant.

That compensation amounted to “entrepreneurial returns for managerial conduct,” Charles M. Elson, a corporate governance scholar at the University of Delaware, told The Times in 2006. “Exxon was there long before Mr. Raymond was there and will be there long after he leaves. Yet he received Rockefeller returns without taking the Rockefeller risk.”

An Exxon Mobil spokesman at the time said Mr. Raymond’s performance justified his pay. Mr. Raymond was a director of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its predecessor, J.P. Morgan & Co., for 33 years before stepping down in 2020. He also was on the board of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.

His hobbies included duck hunting and golf. In a 2013 interview with Investor’s Business Daily, he recalled having made three holes in one. On the corporate jet, he liked to drink milk with popcorn in it, Mr. Coll reported.

One of Mr. Raymond’s sons, John, co-founded Energy & Minerals Group, a private equity firm. “My father gave me three things,” John Raymond told The Journal in 2014. “He gave me work ethic, he gave me a good education and he gave me no money.”

Though Lee Raymond was known for his pugnacity, he had a softer side, according to Mr. Coll’s book: “He could be fiercely loyal to ExxonMobil colleagues and sometimes wept openly when subordinates faced illnesses or other personal struggles.”

It’s been over 1.5 years since COP purchased MRO and the question is- was it worth it? What were the positives and negatives? Is COP stronger and more agile now? What’s next?

Is it ideal? No. Is it better than a lot of places right now? Yes. If you've taken half an hour of your day to brows available jobs, you'd know how cr-ppy the job market is right now. Having a relatively safe job with a decent pay at this moment is more than many others have. As I said, this place is far from perfect, but let's get some perspective.

APA stock experienced an unprecedented 45% price increase in last 6 months. Time to take them gains before stock goes and stays below $26/share…

WTI at 80

Woodside employees are freaking out the their nice supportive environment and prospects are going to be severely impacted and if the XoM deal goes through substantial cultural adjustments will need to be made. Most Woodside employees not ready for the treacherous work environment at XOM Spring campus. HR hosting a teddy bear 🧸 and blanky crying session next week.

Apache is going ba--s deep in Alaska a storied and complex oil province. Does this make sense? Will we see a repetition of Apache Canada with an eventual exit?
What’s JC’s plan?

It’s looking competitive for Woodside as its assets are perfectly aligned with Shell

I hear from others in the office that some big announcement is coming in July. Maybe related to Cold Lake?

BP is reorganizing @ C-level and is announcing a mega structural shake-up. New CEO announced a shift to Upstream/Downstream operating models replacing the current P&O/G&LCE/C&P structure...The prior CEO was sacked for lying to the board, had benefits clawed back, sued, then saw the lawsuit go quiet while he landed a plum director role at a Middle East-backed equity firm that promptly signed a BP JV... Wow...

By the looks of the Midland office, the mothership is going to be shutting it down soon. No one‘s ever there they’ve closed the whole floor and the other ones are maybe 50% full. It’s only a matter of time before they start leasing out one of the towers. If I were one of the employees there, I would start looking at other competitors that value people close to the wellhead.

ConocoPhillips had extensive and profitable operations in Venezuela. With the country’s expressed interest that oil operators return will ConocoPhillips return and use its technical acumen with horizontal wells and frac technology to deliver exceptional results in Venezuela?

It’s now evident that the XOM’s Permian factory has reached an inflection point and starting to experience technical and operational challenges. Please share your experiences and potential outcomes.

Will XOM make another purchase? Who and when? Certainly missed the last opportunity and now candidate companies are overvalued by +66%.

How long will XOM maintain a +22 rig line? It’s cheaper to buy production then it is to develop your own acreage.

Did you all see that new podcast? Mike is sitting on a truck tailgate at a trailer park sipping an ice cold Busch talking about trucks and oil. He's really trying to get the MAGA people on board!

If you think XOM is messed up…it’s actually a fine running Swiss watch. Enjoy what a near peer is going through…Any time you hear energy transition and BP beyond petroleum…think XOM not perfect but way better than others

Congrats on the Exxon farmin. Offsets APC Guyana acreage that has been in force majeure for years . Also remember it had a high gas risk associated with it.

Eventually top tier locations will be reduced and reserve replacement will become a priority. Probability that Oxy merges with another company in the next 2 years

What company or market will CVX buy into next?
CVX oil finders particularly ex Hess G&G are not developing attractive runways and the companies doing a great job of decommissioning and divesting assets.

I see we just farmed out 10% of our Trinidad block to Oxy. I have wondered for a long time what the point of this and OBO is. I understand the idea of risk sharing but how are we supposed to have better returns than our competitors when so many of the projects we do are with them? Wouldn’t it be better for us to do 100% out own projects?

It’s that time again when we forecast and alter the future…
Will Shell acquire or consolidate with bp? Is Shell waiting for the Deepwater Horizon payments to become manageable?

It’s clear that Macondo level magic is rearing its head in 2026 the FAFO year…
Questimate First Oil Date and Peak Production…
The future get cultivated today…

Why did bp increase headcount 18% last year with ongoing strategic layoffs?
Has AI permitted bp to be leaner and meaner? And simpler?
Is bp’s AI a thing? Has bp’s super computer actually resolved making operations safer and more productive?
Are the 15,000 new employees hired last 20 months based in India? Are we removing one western employee and hiring 3 Sub Continent employees ?

Has Al increased the probability for layoffs at Oxy?

5/14/2026 12:00:00 PM

Deal includes Chevron assets in Vietnam, Australia, Philippines, Malaysia
Deal expected to close in 2027

Chevron divests Asian refining assets to streamline operations

Eneos aims to boost overseas sales share to over 50% by 2030, CEO says
Eneos Holdings said it will buy U.S. major Chevron's 50% stake in Singapore Refining Company and other assets in Southeast Asia and Australia for nearly $2.2 billion, in its first refining foray outside of Japan.

The deal, which includes Chevron's assets in Vietnam, Australia, Philippines and Malaysia, is expected to close in 2027, Eneos said. Chevron has been looking to divest refining and storage assets in Asia to streamline operations and reduce costs.

"This investment represents a significant step in strengthening the business platform that connects Japan with Southeast Asia and Oceania," said Eneos Holdings CEO Tomohide Miyata.

Eneos operates nine refining complexes in Japan including a joint venture with PetroChina.

Chevron divestment. SRC operates a 290,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Singapore and the other half of the company is held by PetroChina 0857.HK through its subsidiary Singapore Petroleum Co.

"The agreement reflects Chevron's disciplined approach to managing its international portfolio," said Andy Walz, president of Chevron's downstream, midstream and chemicals.

The SRC stake sale is the second major refinery deal in the Asian oil hub after Shell sold its Bukom refining and petrochemical complex in 2024. Chevron previously sold its Hong Kong retail stations to Thai refiner Bangchak Corp. Corp for $270 million.

The latest sale includes Chevron's Penjuru terminal and lubricants facility in Singapore, which has a storage capacity of around 400,000 cubic meters, roughly equivalent to 2.5 million barrels of oil.

Taking over a fuel terminal in one of the world's largest oil storage and blending hubs will expand Eneos' trading capabilities, especially in refined fuel, analysts said.

"It will be an important strategic move for Eneos to grow downstream given its domestic market in Japan is saturated and expected to decline," said Sushant Gupta, Wood Mackenzie's Asia Pacific refining and oils research director, a reference to Japan's long-term decline in demand owing to a shrinking population.

"It is not just the refinery but things that come along will be the deal sweetener."

Morgan Stanley was appointed by Chevron to handle the sale of the refinery stake and other assets in Asia.

Eneos eyes more overseas M&A deals. Eneos is looking to widen its overseas operations via the purchases from Chevron, while looking at other buys.

"With regard to our overseas operations, which currently account for just under 20% of sales, we intend to use this M&A as a catalyst to significantly expand this share - including through future growth in our trading business - with the aim of raising it to more than 50% by fiscal 2030," said Eneos' Miyata.

He said he did not believe the latest acquisition of assets from Chevron alone would be sufficient to achieve that goal.

"We aim to reach the target through future overseas M&As, and we are already taking steps in that direction," he added.

https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2026/05/eneos-to-buy-chevrons-singapore-refinery-stake-asian-assets-for-22-billion/

BP is weighed down by North Sea UK assets. The hostile regulatory and taxation framework prevents meaningful investment and assets are entering a phase of operation that is not in BP’s wheelhouse. Meg will realize just like she did at Woodside that when assets reach a particular inflection point divestment even at a perceived loss creates a positive outcome for the company.

What assets need to be offloaded first? For transparency have BP UK sanctioned suspect projects with the intention of maintaining leverage and employment at the consequence of capital destruction?

Now that Pioneer employees have received the last of their retention bonus money the resignations are rolling in.

With a heart full of appreciation, l want to say a BIG THANK YOU to our amazing CEO, Vicki Hollub. Thank you for all you did for Oxy’s employees. Thank you for more than doubling Oxy’s production and for your wisdom and foresight in lowering Oxy’s risk in the Middle East and increasing U.S. domestic production. You’ve reshaped Oxy to be a premier oil and gas company. You’ve taken the lead where others are afraid to step into. You are the first woman to Lead a major oil and gas company in the U.S and you didw a terrific job. You’ve also stabilized Oxy (no massive layoffs) which has allowed talents to focus more on their jobs rather than worrying each time the price of oil goes down. Words cannot express how much you did for Oxy as a whole. I wish you long life and the best in your retirement.

This is random but a good read for new folks, not the best forum for this post but since we do not have an alternative one here it goes, hope it helps someone. Folks that have been around the block a while should skip this thread:
https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-an-oil-refinery-works

An Analyst asked on the Earnings call if Meg thought there was a scenario where this discovery wouldn't proceed to development. He started his question by saying how big AF described it to be.

She did not answer the Analyst's question about whether there's a way it doesn't get developed.

CO2 is clearly a know issue with these fields. To not answer and dodge the question by sayijg a great team is working the project sounds like reason to run.

Should we be worried we've dug ourselves into a hole we can't get out of with this biggest discovery in 25 years?

Just wondering when will Apache shutdown their North Sea assets and what is the projected cost to decommission? Will they pull a Field Wood style bankruptcy to offload the North Sea assets back to BP?

Anyone know if the fire at Shell Norco is going to affect our bonus?

All signs point to good results tomorrow with help from the blockade in the Straight of Hormuz. I’m sure we will say it is proof our strategy reset is working, and that we still have to make more “difficult” changes. Then cue layoffs announced around Q2 results. What does everyone else think?

Inside ExxonMobil, job security varies a lot by function. The pattern isn’t about “good vs. bad jobs”—it’s about how directly a role ties to revenue and how easy it is to cut or outsource.

Here’s how it typically breaks down:

Roles that tend to be more stable
1) Core operations (production & refining)
Field operators (oil & gas production)
Refinery technicians
Maintenance crews for critical infrastructure

Why they’re safer:
These roles keep oil and gas flowing—the company literally can’t operate without them. Even during downturns, ExxonMobil usually trims elsewhere first.

2) High-value technical specialists
Petroleum engineers
Reservoir engineers
Geoscientists (especially in active drilling regions)
Certain chemical engineers tied to refining

Why:
They directly impact how much oil/gas is found and produced → tied to revenue.

The more your work affects output or efficiency, the safer you generally are.

3) Project-critical roles during growth phases
Engineers and managers on major projects (e.g., offshore developments, LNG, carbon capture)

Why:
If Exxon has already committed billions to a project, they don’t stop midway unless conditions are extreme.

4) New strategic areas (selectively stable)
Carbon capture
Hydrogen
Lower-emissions technologies

Why:
These are long-term investments, though still smaller and not immune to cuts.

Roles with moderate risk
5) IT and data roles (mixed stability)
Data engineers, cybersecurity → more stable
General IT support → more vulnerable

Why:
Some are mission-critical; others can be outsourced or consolidated.

6) Mid-level management
Supervisors, team leads

Why:
They’re needed, but during restructuring Exxon often “flattens” layers of management.

Roles that are most at risk during layoffs
7) Corporate / back-office functions
HR
Finance (non-core roles)
Legal support
Communications / PR

Why:
These don’t directly generate revenue and are easier to cut or centralize.

8) Administrative and support roles
Admin assistants
Internal support staff

Why:
Often reduced through automation or outsourcing.

9) Early-career / less specialized roles
Entry-level positions without niche expertise

Why:
They’re easier to replace or eliminate compared to highly specialized staff.

10) Roles tied to declining or non-core assets
Staff in fields or refineries being sold or shut down

Why:
When Exxon exits a region or asset, those jobs often disappear or transfer.

One important nuance

Even “safe” roles aren’t immune.

Example:

During the COVID downturn, even engineers at ExxonMobil were laid off.
But cuts were still heavier in corporate and support functions.

Simple rule of thumb

Ask yourself:

“If this role disappeared tomorrow, would production or revenue drop immediately?”

Yes → safer
No → higher risk

https://chatgpt.com/

what’s maryann talkin bout?? we’re making massive profits off of the war, i’d assume the company would be flush with cash. any layoffs or reorgs coming?