Enhancing process safety

“Look after each other.”

As one of the driving principles behind our core value of Care, it sounds simple.

Navigate to:

Image United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to this content.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to this content.

In practice, it drives us to manage risks in a proactive, disciplined way, with a focus on the inherent hazards associated with the vast equipment and complex processes that are essential to our business.

A process safety event could potentially impact our workforce, the community, and the environment. Because of this, we set a high bar for ourselves.

Our approach

Our objective is to help protect our people, communities, and the environment by successfully managing and enhancing process safety.

The primary purpose of process safety is to keep hydrocarbons, chemicals, and process water controlled and safely managed through all phases of our operations.

Our Operations Integrity Management System (OIMS) is the core of how we manage process safety risks.

Everyone at ExxonMobil plays a role in process safety excellence

Risk management strategies and higher-consequence process safety risks are stewarded by our Management Committee as part of our approach to enterprise risk management. Our Upstream, Product Solutions, and Low Carbon Solutions business lines develop and execute these strategies. Centralized support comes from the ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company and our Global Operations & Sustainability team.

OIMS establishes clear standards and expectations, with safeguards applied to the ways we design, operate, and maintain our sites. We manage and verify these safeguards through:

  • Regular inspections.
  • Ongoing maintenance.
  • Competency demonstrations.
  • Emergency preparedness.

In line with OIMS expectations, we also monitor the performance of our operated and non-operated assets (e.g., joint ventures). Where we see opportunities for improvement of our non-operated assets, we encourage operators to consider them.

We apply industry standards, including the API Recommended Practice 754 and the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) No. 456 Recommended Practice. Our process safety indicators classify and track incidents by severity from “Tier 1” to “Tier 3.” Tier 1 process safety events are analyzed through our “Learning from Incidents” process, and corrective actions are identified to guide further improvement. Our recently acquired Pioneer assets were brought into this process and began reporting internally in 2025 – see our Metrics and Data table1 for our reporting on prior years.

We discuss process safety events with multiple groups each year to help identify industry trends and apply learnings. Participating groups include the American Petroleum Institute (API), American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, and the American Chemistry Council. In addition, we are a founding member and remain active in the Advancing Process Safety Initiative, a collaboration between the AFPM and the API.

Our Enhancing Process Safety Program

In 2018, we launched a focused initiative to take process safety to the next level. We added to and improved upon the standards set by OIMS, enhancing our expectations related to:

  • Leadership.
  • Event learning.
  • Human performance principles.
  • Critical task execution.
  • Scenario management.

Effective scenario management is key to preventing and mitigating process safety events and responding if one occurs. This includes understanding major hazards, things that may cause an incident, and the variety of ways events could unfold during and after an event.

People are our most important safeguard. Our human performance principles focus on the human factors that can contribute to safe operations or potentially lead to a safety incident. Our people play a vital role, and we offer mental health check-ins so that our employees can:

  • Ask for help.
  • Pause work if needed.
  • Report issues to management.

In addition, our open-door communication procedures provide avenues for anonymous reporting of employee concerns.

Our zero-spill mindset

Our products are critical to global prosperity and quality of life, and we recognize that making them comes with a certain level of risk. That’s why we train our employees to have a zero-spill mindset, and we design and operate our facilities with that objective in mind.

Our objective is to prevent unplanned releases to the environment.

We are committed to:

  • Prevention, mitigation, and elimination of spills from our operations.
  • Maintaining processes, resources, and personnel to respond to spills, however unlikely they are to occur.

We actively manage spill reductions, and we are applying our learnings to our recent acquisitions. We seek to use best practices based on our own research and the work of others in the industry to continually reduce the number of spills.

Prevention

Our Spill Prevention Program sets procedures across the company to:

  • Inspect and maintain equipment.
  • Train our people on safe practices.
  • Conduct practice drills and communicate lessons learned.

All types of spills are covered, using the overarching principles of our internal frameworks described in OIMS. The program addresses a wide range of scenarios, considering the many human and non-human factors that could potentially lead to a spill.

At our refineries, for example, our human-factor approach led us to create a best-practice guide for identifying and mitigating 17 high-risk elements.

Transport of our products is also an important focus. Millions of barrels of petroleum and chemical products move through thousands of miles of pipeline around the world. The integrity of this process is overseen through comprehensive management programs. In the United States, for example, our affiliate monitors and tests for corrosion and other integrity concerns with ground and air patrols, state-of-the-art detection systems, alarms, and other technologies to continuously control and monitor pipeline operations.

Emergency preparedness

We are prepared for a wide range of events, including natural disasters, pandemics, and operational incidents. Each of our facilities has access to trained responders and resources. Centralized and cross-functional teams develop and practice emergency response tactics through incident management teams and emergency support groups around the world.

Actively managing spill reduction, applying learnings to recent acquisitions2

Spills > Barrel (BBL)

Spills graphic

 Response

In case of a spill, we want to be ready. Rapid, comprehensive response is how we work to minimize impacts.

Our Regional Response Teams (RRTs) include employees from more than 30 countries, with subject matter experts, technical experts, and experienced responders from business lines and functions across the company. These teams use the work of our spill response research program, which was initiated more than half a century ago and remains unique in the industry.

Emergency simulations, like our “tabletop” and field exercises, help us ensure readiness. These are conducted in accordance with management guidelines and regulatory requirements.

Each year, we conduct comprehensive exercises that span several days. At sites around the world, emergency response teams and hundreds of employees, contractors, and specialists run through realistic, higher-consequence scenarios. These exercises often include participation from local authorities and agencies.

In May 2023, for example, the RRT worked with employees to assess and enhance Esso Exploration Angola’s incident management team’s ability to respond quickly and effectively. In total, 245 people were involved in the drill, from 22 countries, including more than 20 people from nongovernmental organizations or mutual aid partners.

In August 2024, the RRT gathered in Baytown for the largest exercise in the site’s 105-year history, simulating a worst-case discharge, as defined by regulations that cover the site. The exercise involved more than 240 people from inside and outside the company, including representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Texas General Land Office, and both the Harris County and the Baytown Offices of Emergency Management.

Collaboration

We work with others in our industry to share best practices, improve capabilities, and facilitate global spill response and management. We also pursue innovative solutions and advance fundamental scientific understanding of spill response through collaboration. Research currently underway includes potential of chemical herders and next-generation dispersants for managing oil spills, assessing alternatives to natural gas flaring, and more.

Groups we work with include:

  • Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre, focused on rapid containment and recovery of all oil types along the Australian coast.
  • Marine Spill Response Corporation, the largest joint industry group focused solely on oil spill and emergency response in the United States, providing access to their STARs network of trained contractors in about 250 locations.
  • Marine Well Containment Company, a not-for-profit focused on deepwater well containment response in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. We are a founding member.
  • Oil Spill Global Response Network, a global collaboration among oil-response companies to provide centers of expertise for spill preparedness, response, and recovery.
  • Oil Spill Response Limited, an industry-owned spill-response cooperative with members representing more than two-thirds of the world’s oil production, and their Global Oiled Wildlife Response Service.
  • Western Canada Spill Services Ltd., which supplements member companies’ programs with additional training and equipment.
  • Oil Spill Combat Team, the largest spill response center in Indonesia.
  • Eastern Canada Response Corporation, which provides services and equipment to ships and oil-handling facilities under Canadian law.
  • Multi-Partner Research Initiative, bringing together government, academia, response organizations, oil companies, indigenous communities, and other experts worldwide.

Workplace security

Protecting our people at all levels of the organization is our top priority in security. Our security programs are risk-based, flexible, and responsive to the places we operate and comply with applicable laws.

Periodic security reviews at our sites address current and potential threats. Each assessment looks at factors such as:

  • Location.
  • Community relationships.
  • Criminal activity.
  • Political climate.

We monitor local conditions and keep detailed readiness plans for many risks, including:

  • Emergency response.
  • Evacuation and intruder response.
  • Bomb threat response.
  • Active shooter response.

We provide tailored guidance for employees in higher-risk countries with challenging security environments. Our teams continue to work to improve our risk management methodologies, threat-assessment capabilities, and technical security management processes through drills, training programs, and industry forums.

Cybersecurity

Attacks against other global companies in recent years highlight the need for all companies to maintain strong cybersecurity safeguards. Our multilayered approach to preventing and mitigating the risks of cyberattacks helps protect us against business disruptions and threats that could materially affect our data, facilities, operations, or the safety and privacy of our people.

We analyze potential threats and implement tools, policies, and architectures to address risk. We leverage industry standard frameworks, including the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, to identify potential gaps in our defenses, and we work with independent, third-party cybersecurity experts to help test and evaluate the strength of our cybersecurity program.

Our Form 10-K filing provides details about the management and scope of our cybersecurity program.

Data protection

We have comprehensive programs designed to protect the integrity and privacy of personal, corporate, and customer data. With respect to the handling of personal data, our data privacy program is designed to handle such information, including that of customers, suppliers, and employees, in a manner consistent with applicable laws. ExxonMobil’s data privacy program includes a code of conduct and data privacy practices that encompass common principles (e.g., purpose limitation, transparency, data security, accuracy of personal data, and data minimization) and are designed to provide simplified and consistent guidance to meet global data privacy requirements.

Training and business continuity

Awareness is one of the best defenses. That’s why cybersecurity education is a priority.

We perform annual training and conduct routine testing of cybersecurity awareness to help our people identify and respond to cybersecurity risks. This includes ongoing mock phishing and other exercises to reinforce safe behaviors.

We manage business continuity as a key component of our controls and OIMS to prepare us if an incident were to occur. Our business continuity plans (BCPs) include a suite of enablers that we can activate as needed.

Our cyber BCPs are regularly reviewed for compliance, performance, and opportunities for improvement. In addition, periodic drills help our workforce keep up with this evolving space while helping us evaluate our ability to maintain safe operations for critical business units.

Artificial Intelligence

We have a history of leveraging technology to drive business value. We consider potential security and safety risks of new and developing technologies.

The power of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, for example, can expand the capabilities of our workforce. AI has the potential to empower our employees to leverage their skills and, in doing so, boost operational efficiency and enhance our business capabilities. To bring AI-enabled solutions to our business at scale we:

  • Test reliability, security, and performance.
  • Develop tools and best practices.
  • Gain exposure to emerging technologies and suppliers.
  • Develop guardrails and our AI strategy for adoption at scale.

Our strategy brings our efforts together in a single ecosystem to help scale AI technology across the organization. Our strategy is built on six elements:

  • Business-led: Reimagine our business functions and deliver outstanding customer experiences at lower costs.
  • Talent: Equip people with AI skills and capabilities to envision and execute innovation.
  • Operating model: Develop synergies as we find uses for AI across the company at pace and scale, while reducing costs.
  • Technology: Provide the right tools and technology to address business needs and opportunities.
  • Data: Continuously improve the quality and availability of our data to provide relevant insights and enhance decision making.
  • Responsible AI: Based on industry standards like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, our Responsible AI Principles guide our efforts in aspects related to safety, security, fairness, and privacy.

    Publications

    Explore more

    Expanding the plastics life cycle

    Expanding the plastics life cycle

    Sunset over ExxonMobil fields.

    Integrating sustainability into what we do

    Working with suppliers

    Working with suppliers

    Improving air quality

    Improving air quality

    Water with bridge

    Sustainability Report Executive Summary

    Men working in a recycling facility

    Minimizing operational waste

     

    FOOTNOTES:

    1. Includes Denbury data beginning on April 1, 2024.
    2. ExxonMobil data includes hydrocarbon, drilling fluid, and chemical spills greater than 1 barrel (bbl). Based on performance data as of March 12, 2025, including recent acquisitions (Denbury data beginning November 2, 2023, and Pioneer data beginning May 3, 2024).