ExxonMobil back to basics

The world's biggest oil firm is relying on science, technology and, increasingly, its domestic base to insulate it from weaker oil prices

If ExxonMobil had a formula for weathering the industry's most turbulent era in a generation, it might go something like this: science plus size equals success. Stubbornly low crude prices have spurred the company's new chairman and chief executive, Darren Woods, to use science and technology to increase margins. Woods, an electrical engineer by training, insists that Exxon is as much a scientific business as it is an oil and gas one. He's accelerating the application of seemingly esoteric research into the field, especially upstream. At the same time, the company is using its unparalleled global footprint and integrated well to petrol pump business model to get the most out of its vast indu