ExxonMobil Australia (formerly Esso Australia) is an Australian affiliate of

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

, the U.S.-based oil giant. It operates a number of oil and gas platforms in

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...

, south east of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia, as well as a gas processing facility at

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

and Long Island Point (LIP) in

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

. ExxonMobil Australia operates retail petrol operations under the

Mobil Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999. ...

brand. Prior to the merger of Exxon and Mobil in 1999, Esso Australia also previously operated retail petrol operations for 63 years until 1990, when its stations were acquired by Mobil.

History

Between 1933 and 1962

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...

was owned by Stanvac or

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

. The trademark for Esso was first registered in 1937. After 1962 Esso's Australian operations were known as Esso Standard Oil (Australia) Pty Ltd. On 25 September 1998, the

Esso Longford gas explosion The Esso Longford gas explosion was a catastrophic industrial accident which occurred at the Esso Natural gas processing, natural gas plant at Longford, Victoria, Longford in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria's Gippsland reg ...

killed two and injured eight others. As Victoria's largest supplier of natural gas the aftermath was considerable with hundreds of thousands of homes affected. Many Victorians experienced 20 days without gas hot-water or heating. A Royal Commission was held finding Esso responsible for the accident. Esso was also found guilty by jury verdict of 11 offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and fined $2 million. In November 1999, Esso and Mobil finalised its merger to form ExxonMobil globally. The Australian affiliates of both companies also merged to form ExxonMobil Australia. The merged company inherited the Adelaide and Altona refineries. The Adelaide refinery closed in 2003 and was demolished in 2009. In November 2012 there was a crude oil spill at Longford.

Projects

Esso is proceeding with plans to build a Gas Conditioning Plant adjacent to its existing facilities at Longford. The facility will remove carbon dioxide from natural gas and is being built in conjunction with

BHP Billiton BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian Multinational corporation, multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Propri ...

Industrial disputes

Esso's Longford plant and its related offshore facilities in the Bass Strait have been the focus of a prolonged industrial dispute related to the company's outsourced maintenance workforce. Scaffolders, electricians, boilermakers and fitters were employed to maintain gas equipment up until 2017 by Esso contractor UGL in a joint venture with KAEFER Integrated Services, a German engineering and maintenance corporation. UGL won the contract outright in 2017 and offered the workforce their roles back on reduced pay and conditions under a new enterprise agreement through its subsidiary MTCT Services. The MTCT agreement was filed with the

Fair Work Commission The Fair Work Commission (FWC), until 2013 known as Fair Work Australia (FWA), is the Australian industrial relations tribunal created by the ''Fair Work Act 2009'' as part of the Rudd Government's reforms to industrial relations in Australia ...

in late 2016. Those filings indicate the agreement was voted on and approved by five casual workers employed by MTCT in Western Australia. There is no indication that the workers had any experience in gas facilities maintenance or intended to work at Esso's Victorian facilities. Unions representing the workers allege the enterprise agreement was not negotiated with the Victorian workforce, making it unrepresentative. That would put the company's conduct in direct conflict with ExxonMobil's global 'Statement on labour and the workplace', which commits the company to the right to collective bargaining. A majority of the affected workers at Longford refused UGL's offer and have been protesting outside the facility since 20 June 2017. Esso and the unions representing the workers have criticised each other in the media. In July Esso lodged a complaint to have a large inflatable rat removed from the protest and signs removed that referred to UGL's replacement workforce as 'scabs'.

Corporate tax avoidance

In November 2017 workers affected by Esso contractor UGL's pay cuts travelled to Canberra to highlight the tax practices of Esso's parent company, ExxonMobil Australia. Between 2013/14 and 2015/16 ExxonMobil Australia paid no corporate income tax on $24.7 billion in revenue. ExxonMobil argues that the company has paid a 'fair share' by contributing $12 billion in petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) since the tax was introduced in 1990. ExxonMobil executives were due to appear before the Australian Parliament's Senate Inquiry into Corporate Tax Avoidance in early 2018.

References

External links