Exxon Mobil

ExxonMobil, America’s largest publicly traded oil company, faced a challenging 2019. CEO Darren Woods pinned the problem squarely on low oil prices. The company earned $14.3 billion—a 31% drop in profits year-on-year—as debt levels rose by 24%; its investments, meanwhile, ran into oversupplied markets across its supply chain. Exxon did benefit from a divestment of production assets in Norway, and it dramatically ramped up its U.S. shale output. But the oil crash in early 2020 caused further headaches: for Q1, Exxon announced its first quarterly loss in more than three decades.