ExxonMobil Exceeds Rivals in Emissions

When it comes to global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, attention is most often drawn to the world’s major oil and gas companies, who are some of the worst offenders. Over the past decade, Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil, the world’s two largest companies in terms of revenue, have made steady progress.

However, both of these giant multinationals are trailing BP when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions in metric tons. Despite its controversial environmental record including the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, BP has proven successful when it comes to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. The British multinational oil and gas giant produced 65 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2009.

This number has fallen every year since, and by the end of 2012, BP emitted 59.8 million metric tons. In comparison, Shell has fluctuated slightly. After a good performance in 2009, emissions rose to 76 million metric tons. Since then, this number has fallen back down to 72 million metric tons.

ExxonMobil is by far the worst of the three when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. Over the course of the past four years, the amount of greenhouse gases produced peaked in 2011 when 128 million metric tons were emitted. By the end of 2012, this had fallen to 125 million metric tons, still far ahead of the corporation’s primary rivals.