The leadership at ExxonMobil has promised investors that it will "soften" its public image in a bid to rid itself of a reputation for being green campaigners' public enemy number one. Chairman and chief executive Rex Tillerson made clear to a select group of top Wall Street fund managers and equity analysts that it would not be changing its basic position on global warming - just explain it better.
The world's biggest publicly quoted oil company faces a long-running boycott campaign against its Esso petrol brand by environmental activists in Europe. A pugnacious personal style and an uncompromising stance on global warming and other issues taken by former boss, Lee Raymond, left it isolated compared to rivals such as Shell and BP which have courted the green lobby.
Mr Tillerson, who took over January 2006, is said to have told the meeting of six analysts and four major investors that the company accepted it had a public relations problem. "We recognise that we need to soften our public image. It is something we are working on," he told them, according to one of the analysts who attended the discussions.
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Exxon has managed to keep a lower profile and better relations with host governments than Shell or BP. Exxon claims to have encountered no problems with its Sakhalin-1 project in eastern Russia. But the company is taking a robust stance over unilateral changes to contracts by the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. Mr Tillerson told investors that he would take all necessary measures to protect its interests there.
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http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1985327,00.htmlNot that we didn't know where their priorities were . . .
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