Exxon Corporation

US oil company, founded in 1888 as the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), selling petrol under the brand name Esso from 1926 and under the name Exxon in the USA from 1972. In 1999, the company merged with Mobil to create the world's largest privately-owned oil company. In February 2008 Exxon Mobil announced annual profits of $40.6 billion, the largest ever recorded by a US company.

Exxon was responsible for oil spills in Alaska in 1989 and New York harbour in 1990. In 1994 a US federal court ruling ordered the company to pay $5 billion/£3.2 billion in punitive damages to the Alaskan fishing industry and local people affected by the 1989 spill. After several appeals against the ruling, the damages were reduced to $2.5 billion in December 2006. The company then appealed again to the Supreme Court, with the hearing anticipated to start in spring 2008.