Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (89 page)

6.
Interviews with ExxonMobil executives. Also, “The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2030.” ExxonMobil has published revised versions of this forecast each year since 2004; the details of the forecast as it was published and briefed early in 2005 are derived from transcripts of presentations by ExxonMobil executives at that time.

7.
“The Outlook,” ibid., and interviews with ExxonMobil executives.

8.
Independent,
February 21, 2005.

9.
Pacala and Socolow, “Stabilization Wedges.” Also, Robert H. Socolow and Stephen Pacala, “A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check,”
Scientific American
, September 2006.

10.
Oreskes, “Behind the Ivory Tower.”

11.
Freudenburg, “Seeding Science, Courting Conclusions.”

12.
All quotations, ibid.

13.
Lunch, succession, Palm Springs: Interviews with current and former ExxonMobil executives.

14.
Interview with a former ExxonMobil director.

15.
Fortune,
September 15, 2003.

16.
Interview with Lee Raymond.

17.
Economist,
December 24, 2005.

18.
“Energy Prices and Profits,” U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, November 9, 2005.

19.
Associated Press,
March 26, 2002; interview with Spencer Abraham.

20.
All quotations from the full “Energy Prices and Profits” hearing record, op. cit.

21.
Abu Dhabi to Washington, September 28, 2005 (W). Abu Dhabi to Washington, February 17, 2003 (W).

22.
“What in the hell”: Interviews with ExxonMobil executives. “Major Outstanding Issues” and “ExxonMobil would prefer”: Abu Dhabi to Washington, November 7, 2005 (W). “Mostly about money”: Abu Dhabi to Washington, September 28, op. cit. “Exxon’s technical”: Abu Dhabi to Washington, November 21, 2005 (W).

23.
“Lee Raymond Retires: The Lessons of History,” brief by Adam Sieminski and Paul Sankey for Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc., December 29, 2005.

24.
ExxonMobil Annual Report, 2005. Interview with Mark Gilman.

25.
Interview with Mark Gilman. Amy Myers Jaffe: “Is Wall Street Quite Wrong When It Comes to Big Oil?”
New York Sun,
February 10, 2005.

26.
ExxonMobil Annual Report, 2005.

27.
Interviews with former ExxonMobil executives. Estimate of the total retirement package, including restricted stock and options, is from Jad Mouawad,
New York Times
, April 14, 2006.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: “ON MY HONOR”

1.
Interviews with ExxonMobil executives familiar with the transition planning. “Remains unchanged”: ExxonMobil Corporation Analyst Meeting, New York, March 8, 2006. “It’s true . . . bum rap”: Remarks at the Northwest Texas Council, Boy Scouts of America, 100th Anniversary Dinner, November 11, 2010, in response to a question from Ann O’Hanlon. “Let me assure you”:
Dallas Morning News
, May 31, 2007.

2.
The author is indebted to the biographical research on Rex Tillerson and his family carried out for this book by S. G. Gwynne. This section draws on and incorporates language drafted by Gwynne in a research memo.

3.
Gwynne, ibid., and research in Wichita Falls by Ann O’Hanlon.

4.
Gwynne, ibid. Fraternity hazing: Author’s interview with a participant. Ayn Rand:
Scouting Magazine,
September 2008.

5.
Gwynne, op. cit.

6.
Interview with a former ExxonMobil manager.

7.
Fortune
, April 30, 2007.

8.
The account of the committee’s appointment and review work is from interviews with five current and former managers involved. ExxonMobil has referred only obliquely to the work in public.

9.
MIT News,
May 19, 2009.

10.
Interview with an individual familiar with the K Street office.

11.
Interviews with five current and former managers involved.

12.
“In terms of showing . . . equaled again”: Remarks at the Northwest Texas Council, November 11, 2010, op. cit.

13.
“They have a self-righteousness” and “tobacco industry”:
Fortune
, April 17, 2006. The author is indebted to Ann O’Hanlon’s thorough review and analysis of oil corporation campaign filings between 2000 and 2008, from which these comparisons are drawn. Walter Buchholtz:
Washington Post
, September 1, 2004.

14.
Interviews with individuals familiar with the ExxonMobil Washington office.

15.
Theresa Fariello biography: Meridian International Center Board of Directors.

16.
Louis Finkel:
New York Times,
December 2, 2006.

17.
The account in this section of the Airlie Center Dialogue is drawn from interviews carried out by Ann O’Hanlon with seven participants, as well as e-mails and notes taken during the meetings.

18.
All quotations, ibid.

19.
Ibid.

20.
“U.S. Climate Change Policy,” e-mail from Kenneth P. Cohen, January 11, 2007. “We know our climate is changing”:
Fortune
, April 30, 2007.

21.
“ExxonMobil’s Top Executives on Climate-Change Policy,” euractiv.com, February 14, 2007. This extensive interview with Cohen and Stuewer provides a very thorough account of the policy and communication strategy that emerged from the 2006 climate policy work.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: “CHAD CAN LIVE WITHOUT OIL”

1.
368 wells in 2006: “Chad/Cameroon Development Project, Project Update no. 21, 2006,” Esso Exploration & Production Chad, Inc. Landscape: Author’s travel to southern Chad. Rules, Guantánamo, entombed: Interviews with employees and other individuals familiar with ExxonMobil’s operations in Chad. Twelve thousand square miles, nine camps, 450 oil production sites: N’djamena to Washington, June 5, 2007 (W).

2.
N’djamena to Washington, ibid.

3.
Author’s travel and local interviews. About 2,500 security guards: Interviews with two executives at a company involved in the security operations.

4.
Ibid.; N’djamena to Washington, op. cit.

5.
Interviews with U.S. officials and other individuals familiar with ExxonMobil’s operations in Chad. PowerPoint slides: “Benefits to USA from Chadian Crude Oil Operations,” circa 2008.

6.
Land payments, price rises, micro lending: Interviews with Catholic Church monitors in Doba who were involved with the World Bank’s micro lending project. Wages skimmed, settlement: Interviews with Doukam Ngartandoh and Djim Ngaro Michel of the Association for the Defense of the Interests of Former Esso Workers, in Doba. “Regarded as a model”: N’djamena to Washington, February, 8, 2010 (W). “The influx . . . before the oil”: “Interagency Support on Conflict Assessment and Mission Performance Planning for Chad,” March 20, 2006, courtesy of Ian Gary, Oxfam.

7.
Author’s travel to village and local interviews. N’djamena to Washington, 2007, op. cit.

8.
ExxonMobil demurs when asked for infrastructure support: Interview with Adoum Younousmi, Chad’s minister for national infrastructure. Blaming World Bank: Interviews with ExxonMobil executives.

9.
Interview with Boukinebe Garka.

10.
Flint and De Waal,
Darfur: A New History of a Long War
, pp. 114–15.

11.
The numbers here are U.S. government estimates of Chad’s defense capabilities, obtained from interviews with U.S. officials who asked not to be further identified.

12.
“Chad/Cameroon Development Project, Project Update no. 24,” 2008, p. 77, Esso Exploration & Production Chad, Inc.

13.
Interview with Mahamat Hissène.

14.
N’djamena to Washington, February 6, 2006 (W).

15.
Paul Wolfowitz’s thinking about Africa, “wasn’t helped . . . failing place it is”: Remarks at American Enterprise Institute, “Does Africa’s Future Depend on Global Financial Institutions?” April 24, 2009. “Chad has a sovereign right”: Wolfowitz described what Déby said to him during their phone call during a conference call with reporters,
New York Times
, January 7, 2006.

16.
N’djamena to Washington, January 31, 2006 (W).

17.
N’djamena to Washington, February 6, 2006 (W).

18.
N’djamena to Washington, January 9, 2006. This and other cables, as indicated, were released to the author under a Freedom of Information Act request. Some of these cables were written around the same time as cables released by Wikileaks, but are not in that online collection.

19.
N’djamena to Washington, July 12, 2006.

20.
Robert Zoellick telephoned Wolfowitz: Secretary of State to N’djamena, January 19, 2006. The document provides a redacted account of a meeting among Zoellick, other State Department officials, Chad’s foreign minister Ahmad, Allam-mi, and other Chadian officials, January 10, 2006. “The government brought . . . revenues to date”: World Bank, “Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project: Overview,” December 2006.

21.
Pascal Yoadimnadji communiqué: N’djamena to Washington, April 15, 2006. Wall’s meeting with Déby and Ito, all quotations: N’djamena to Washington, April 15, 2006, and N’djamena to Washington, April 16, 2006.

22.
N’djamena to Washington, April 26, 2006.

23.
N’djamena to Washington, August 7, 2005.

24.
Interview with Mahamat Hissène.

25.
Ibid.

26.
N’djamena to Washington, August 30, 2006.

27.
All quotations, N’djamena to Washington, September 6, 2006. The embassy cable describing Barack Obama’s meeting with Idriss Déby was marked sensitive but unclassified when it was written; its contents were cleared at the time by Obama’s staff; and it was released without redactions in response to the author’s Freedom of Information Act request.

28.
Interview with Mahamat Hissène. $281 million, lump sum within seven days: N’djamena to Washington, October 9, 2006, F.O.I.A. N’djamena to Washington, October 9, 2006 (W).

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: “I PRAY FOR EXXON”

1.
Jeff Alban et al. v. ExxonMobil Corp.
, 03-C-06-0101932OT, Baltimore County Circuit Court, Maryland, pleadings and trial testimony.

2.
Quoted in plaintiffs’ opening statement,
Alban v. ExxonMobil
, ibid
.
Also, trial testimony of Dean Jerome, written logs from Jacksonville Exxon of January 13, 2006.

3.
“A very big majority” and “working properly”: Trial testimony of David Schanberger,
Alban v. ExxonMobil,
op. cit.

4.
All quotations, trial testimony of Russell Bowen,
Alban v. ExxonMobil
, ibid.

5.
Ibid.

6.
Trial testimony of Steven Polkey, ibid.

7.
Talking points: Testimony of Russell Bowen, op. cit. Sign: Quoted in plaintiffs’ opening statement, op. cit.