Thread regarding ExxonMobil Corp. layoffs

@2qk+1kdzt1s20

Internal research is not focused on commercialization within ExxonMobil. The purpose of research is to "legally" allow the CEO and Executive Committee to put on PowerPoint Slide #1 that we are actively involved in x-x downstream or chemical research that can be commercialized in your country if you allow us to book twenty years of oil and gas reserves.

Most country leaders not only want to produce oil and gas, they also want to refine some of the oil and gas in country. Research is just used as a "legal" tool by the Executive Committee to negotiate upstream oil and gas reserves. Once the oil and gas reserves are booked, the downstream and chemical research mysteriously disappears.

An example of this is the AGC-21 project focused on Qatar. We booked twenty years of offshore oil and gas and then ended the AGC-21 gas to liquids R&D program. We built commercially proven LNG trains in Qatar instead.

ExxonMobil’s Reported Spending on AGC‑21
ExxonMobil has spent more than $600 million on its AGC‑21 (Advanced Gas Conversion for the 21st Century) research and development program
Source: Energy Intelligence

According to an Energy Intelligence report, ExxonMobil has been working for over 20 years on its own GTL (gas‑to‑liquids) technology, AGC‑21, and has developed more than 3,500 patents in the process
Source: Energy Intelligence

The company stated that it had spent more than $600 million on the AGC‑21 R&D program
Source: Energy Intelligence

This figure reflects the cumulative investment in research, development, and related activities to create and refine the AGC‑21 process, not the cost of any single project or license. The report does not provide a breakdown of that spending by year, nor does it list any other specific expenditures tied directly to AGC‑21 beyond the total R&D amount.

Key points from the source
Source: Energy Intelligence

Technology: AGC‑21 is ExxonMobil’s proprietary gas‑to‑liquids process.

R&D investment: Over $600 million spent on the program.

Patents: More than 3,500 patents related to the technology.

Commercialization: None

ExxonMobil’s annual reports and investor filings do not break out AGC‑21 spending as a separate line item; the $600 million figure comes from industry reporting and is the most specific public disclosure available.
Source: ExxonMobil

get rid of Emtech as a whole, its mentally exhausting to deal with them

@rp They keep unloading this trash in EMHC

@bb i witnessed the waste of money in Clinton, projects they knew would never be commercialized, site is totally corrupt.

@rp Amen,

For layoffs:
Start with the PhDs who were hired and worked at CSR (Clinton, NJ), former URC, and recently LCS. These three organizations hired and empowered some of the most incompetent technical people who do not want to do real work. Even in low level toxic management roles, employees from these organizations continued to create toxic unhealthy work environment for everyone.

@n7 What did Biden have to do with your wife leaving you?

Answer: little to nothing.

The older people get, the more they watch cable news, and the more politicized they become.

IDGAF who wears a mask and who doesn’t. Got my vaccines so I’m good.

What does Trump have to do with EMTEC PhDs? Most of them are still wearing masks to work.

And at least half of them come in three days a week….

@f3 That doesn’t mean what you think it means.

1000% agreed

@bc All the havoc that DJT, Musk unleashed in 2025 in the name of DOGE, will unfortunately have long term consequences for a lot of Americans. Starting with medical research & treatment including cancer. But hey, MAGA!

It’s ok to admit you fell for the con. China, Russia and India are laughing at us now. Our leaders our so easily bribed, just distract them with shiny new objects.

@b9 It was DOGE that ripped all the federally funded research programs to shreds, along with an avalanche of executive orders and firings of highly qualified scientists at the beginning of 2025.

Chances are you supported this on some level, so you can stay quiet and let it happen. #FAFO

@b0 A lot of private sector research is outsourced to non-profits and universities. There tends to be a larger delta between profits/expenditures when this approach is taken because it keeps labor costs low.

I’ve observed several instances of people with PhDs having issues taking correction/guidance, and also with functioning as part of a business unit. I’ve seen it enough to where I won’t hire one as a FT-W2. Ever. The better the school they came from the worse the problem is.

This is how America gets left behind. Our research institutions used to be the envy of every other country. You want China holding you hostage with their technology? I always the anti science anti education crowd was a vocal minority. The right has lost its mind.

@at They don’t need to steal the archaic, barely functional technology that most oil companies use.

Depending on the field/industry they’re easily 5+ years ahead of the U.S. this is especially true for Artificial Intelligence.

Watch less Fox/OANN.

@OP I actually agree.

I’ve never met or worked with someone who holds a PhD who was capable of taking correction or admitting that they were wrong.

To be fair, there’s plenty of people who don’t hold PhDs who have the same issues.

I have a masters FWIW.

@af your logic makes zero sense. You are saying research doesn’t result in good earnings so you have to license in the technology. But how did the third party make money doing said research? If no one did any research, there would be no big advancements to carry a corporation forward.

@af and guess where the chinese are stealing that technology from?

If you calculate the NPV on Upstream, Downstream, and Chemical Research and Development projects, you will realize that the NPV is "zero" or "negative".

Why? Spending money on research projects for twenty years before something is commercialized seldom generates sufficient cash flow for the next twenty years to make up for the "sunk" research and development costs.

It is far more cost effective to license the technology, process, or catalyst from a 3rd party company especially technology companies in the Peoples Republic of China.

Not my experience at all. What job family do you work in? Many of the principals and senior principals come from the old URC organization and are highly regarded across industry in presumably other job families. But those were the ones hired 20+ years ago, not the current batch.