Exxon Mobil Corporation

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the ExxonMobil Corporation's second quarter 2021 earnings call. Today's call is being recorded, and at this time, I'd like to turn the call over to the Vice President of Investor Relations and Secretary, Mr. Stephen Littleton. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our second quarter earnings call. We appreciate your participation and continued interest in ExxonMobil. I am Steven Littleton, Vice President of Investor Relations. Joining me today are Darren Woods, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Jack Williams, our Senior Vice President, overseeing downstream and chemical. In a moment, Darren will make some introductory comments. I will then cover the quarterly financial and operating results, and then Jack and Darren will provide their perspectives on the business. Following those remarks, we will be happy to address any questions. Our comments this morning will reference the slides available on the investor section of our website. I would also like to draw your attention to the cautionary statement on slide two and to the supplemental information at the end of this presentation. I will now turn the call over to Darren.

Thank you, Steven, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Before Steven takes us through the second quarter results, let me start by covering the significant developments in the quarter, starting with the extensive engagement the board and I had with our shareholders in the months leading up to our annual meeting. We received some very explicit feedback that we found valuable and are incorporating in our plans as we move the company forward. In future, the directors, the management committee, and I look forward to continuing the active shareholder engagement. and discussing the good work going on at the company and the progress we are making on all fronts. Since our annual meeting, we've welcomed our new directors, Greg Goff, Kaisa Haitala, and Andy Karsner, with a number of discussions that included myself, our lead director, Ken Frazier, other board members, and senior managers of the company. In June, we began the new members onboarding process with in-depth reviews of our businesses and key topics, such as our energy outlook and our approach to the energy transition. The board has met virtually on a couple of topics since the annual meeting. This week was the first in-person regular meeting of the board. We had very substantive and productive discussions across both the committees and the full board. that were informed by the extensive shareholder engagements of the past several months. I'm pleased to say that without exception, our directors are focused on improving the performance of the company, addressing the challenges faced by our industry, and increasing long-term shareholder value. There is very good alignment on the importance of leveraging the diverse experience and skills of the board, the important role ExxonMobil will have in the transition, helping to lead through the development and deployment of critical technologies, advocating for necessary policy, and making strategically and financially accretive investments. The need to improve transparency and engagement with our shareholders, actively listening and more explicitly addressing concerns, and, of course, driving total shareholder return in both the short and long run. While there is still much to do, I think we're working from a very strong foundation. ExxonMobil is proud to be a global leader in the industry. As the energy system evolves with society's needs, we look forward to continuing our role as a leader, helping lead society through the transition, leveraging the deep thinking and analytical rigor of our 20,000 scientists and engineers and the hard work of all of our people. Another important development in the quarter was the addition of Cathy Michaels to our management committee. as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On behalf of the Board, the other members of the Management Committee, and our entire organization, I want to welcome Kathy and express how excited we are to have her on board. She joins us formally next month and brings significant CFO and investor relations experience from her time at Diageo, Xerox, United Airlines, and ADT. In addition to the financial functions, Kathy's portfolio will include corporate strategic planning, investor relations, and a number of our global business services like IT and procurement. We look forward to the depth of experience and perspective she will bring. While welcoming Kathy, I'd like to also recognize Andy Sweiger's retirement, which was also recently announced. I'd like to take the opportunity to express our gratitude for the many contributions Andy has made during his 43 years with the company. He has certainly earned his retirement and we all wish him and his wife, Sherry, the very best. Also of significance to the quarter was the continuing market recovery, which obviously underpins our results. As you will hear, the organization remains very focused on continuing to leverage the changes we've implemented over the last several years and on delivering the plans we've discussed with you in March. As the market improves, we've maintained a disciplined approach, doing more with less. We remain focused on delivering industry-leading operating performance, continuing to significantly reduce costs, advancing our portfolio of high-return, advantaged projects, executing value-accredited investments, and rebuilding the strength of our balance sheet. In addition, as the need for climate solutions beyond wind, solar, and electric vehicles grow, We are working to expand our portfolio of strategically and financially accretive low-carbon solutions investments. While still in the early stages, I'm pleased with the progress we're making. I'll come back to this later in the call. At this time, I'll hand it back to Stephen.