Exxon's Refining `Shocker' Puts Rockefeller Legacy in Doubt
- Oil giant’s fuel-making unit lost almost $3 million a day
- Senior vice president defends soundness of integrated model
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Exxon Mobil Corp.’s worst refining performance in almost two decades may revive questions about the so-called integrated model engineered by founder John D. Rockefeller and espoused by every CEO in the company’s 149-year history.
A surprise loss in a business line Exxon typically relies on to prop up more volatile units eroded first-quarter profit and cast doubt on the strength of the oil titan’s comeback from its annus horribilis in 2018.