Private Empire

ExxonMobil and American Power

By: Steve Coll

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.

Private Empire pulls back the curtain, tracking the corporation’s recent history and its central role on the world stage, beginning with the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 and leading to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The action spans the globe, moving from Moscow, to impoverished African capitals, Indonesia, and elsewhere in heart-stopping scenes that feature kidnapping cases, civil wars, and high-stakes struggles at the Kremlin. At home, Coll goes inside ExxonMobil’s K Street office and corporation headquarters in Irving, Texas, where top executives in the “God Pod” (as employees call it) oversee an extraordinary corporate culture of discipline and secrecy.

The narrative is driven by larger than life characters, including corporate legend Lee “Iron Ass” Raymond, ExxonMobil’s chief executive until 2005. A close friend of Dick Cheney’s, Raymond was both the most successful and effective oil executive of his era and an unabashed skeptic about climate change and government regulation.. This position proved difficult to maintain in the face of new science and political change and Raymond’s successor, current ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, broke with Raymond’s programs in an effort to reset ExxonMobil’s public image. The larger cast includes countless world leaders, plutocrats, dictators, guerrillas, and corporate scientists who are part of ExxonMobil’s colossal story.

The first hard-hitting examination of ExxonMobil, Private Empire is the masterful result of Coll’s indefatigable reporting. He draws here on more than four hundred interviews; field reporting from the halls of Congress to the oil-laden swamps of the Niger Delta; more than one thousand pages of previously classified U.S. documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act; heretofore unexamined court records; and many other sources. A penetrating, newsbreaking study, Private Empire is a defining portrait of ExxonMobil and the place of Big Oil in American politics and foreign policy.

Critic reviews

“ExxonMobil has met its match in Coll, an elegant writer and dogged reporter . . . extraordinary . . . monumental.” —The Washington Post

“Fascinating . . . Private Empire is a book meticulously prepared as if for trial, a lawyerly accumulation of information that lets the facts speak for themselves . . . a compelling and elucidatory work.” —Bloomberg

“Private Empire is meticulous, multi-angled and valuable . . . Mr. Coll’s prose sweeps the earth like an Imax camera.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times

"ExxonMobil has cut a ruthless path through the Age of Oil. Yet intense secrecy has kept one of the world's largest companies a mystery, until now. Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power is a masterful study of Big Oil's biggest player . . . Coll's in-depth reporting, buttressed by his anecdotal prose, make Private Empire a must-read. Consider Private Empire a sequel of sorts to The Prize, Daniel Yergin's Pulitzer-winning history of the oil industry . . . Coll's portrait of ExxonMobil is both riveting and appalling . . . Yet Private Empire is not so much an indictment as a fascinating look into American business and politics. With each chapter as forceful as a New Yorker article, the book abounds in Dickensian characters.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Coll makes clear in his magisterial account that Exxon is mighty almost beyond imagining, producing more profit than any American company in the history of profit, the ultimate corporation in 'an era of corporate ascendancy.' This history of its last two decades is therefore a revealing history of our time, a chronicle of the intersection between energy and politics.” —Bill McKibben, New York Review of Books

“Groundbreaking . . . Masterful as a corporate portrait, Private Empire gushes with narrative.” —American Prospect

Interesting but glad it's over

Interesting book. Now I see ExxonMobil as much more of a mundane company than some nefarious international company.

the many lives of a behemoth oil company

An investigation into a giant oil company and the people who run it and how it manages
its public profile and its engagement in places where there is little or no rule of law.
The book does not give answers but it does pose lots of questions.

Great Fly on the Wall Perspective of ExxonMobil

If you like to feel like an insider, then this book is for you! I really like Steven Coll's pacing, as he was able to get my attention immediately as he starts with the tragedy surrounding the Exxon Valdez and all the characters involved in this historical event. From there he takes you through the ups and downs of this enormous private enterprise, which I found very insightful.

The key to the success of this book is the neutral perspective assumed by Coll, as I hate books that try to portray something that is simply big as also automatically bad. I am a businessman, and this book allowed me some keen insights into the thinking and doings of a major employer, energy producer, and endless source of speculation and controversy.

This book is not going to change your life by any means, but it is a great impartial look behind the curtain of a major global player.

I would highly recommend this book to any students of business or generally to anyone who likes to glimpse the inside.

The History of Oil

There are many supporting actors throughout disparate countries during different decades that unless you listen carefully during the early chapters it may become confusing as the story evolves. Overall well presented by both author and narrator although I felt the ending was weak as I was expecting a strong close given the build up as the story reached its conclusion. But then at 24 hours this was a long listen but enlightening if not extremely familiar with ExxonMobil history.

Interesting history

May have liked a bit more of the whole intrigue thing, but maybe it just is what it is! Overall a good read and would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about the oil industry players.