DALLAS -- The chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp. said alternative fuels will grow but that oil will remain the world's leading source of energy for another quarter-century.
CEO Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that natural gas will surpass coal as the second-most heavily used fuel.
Tillerson made the comments at the company's annual shareholder meeting.
About 15 people protested outside the meeting hall, saying that Exxon was not doing enough to reduce climate change and develop alternative sources of energy to burning oil and natural gas.
Tillerson said the Irving, Texas, company has reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by nearly 11 million tons over the past five years, which he said was equal to taking nearly 2 million cars off the road.
Exxon Mobil earned $32.6 billion last year, a decline of 26 percent from 2012. Revenue fell 9 percent to $438.3 billion. Exxon shares gained 17 percent last year; they have been flat so far this year.
But, as it has for several years, the environmental debate crowded out the financial one at the annual meeting of the nation's largest oil company.
Pat Daley, a dissident shareholder and Dominican nun from New Jersey, said Exxon was making a long-term business mistake by not moving more aggressively into alternative fuels. She said the company was betting "that the nations of the world will continue to do nothing about climate change for the next 30 years."
Tillerson said he was confident technology will provide an answer to climate change, and he said proponents of ideas such as hard emissions-reduction goals were simplistic.
"There is not going to be a ready set of solutions that are going to fit the world's peoples" because, Tillerson suggested, people in developing countries will want to achieve the same living standards as those in the developed world, which will drive higher global demand for energy.
Shareholders rejected a resolution urging Exxon to set numerical goals to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions both from its own operations and the use of its products.
Exxon this month extended its partnership with Russia's OAO Rosneft and said Wednesday that it has seen no change in its business in the country.
Tillerson said he expects sanctions against Russia to probably be ineffective.
"We don't find them to be effective unless they are very well implemented," Tillerson said. Authorities imposing the sanctions should consider "who are they really harming?"
Exxon is among American oil producers that ignored U.S. State Department recommendations to skip an energy forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, last week, and it extended a pact with Rosneft involving drilling for crude in the Arctic and Siberia. U.S. and European nations have imposed sanctions to punish Vladimir Putin's regime for its actions in Ukraine.
Exxon is the biggest U.S. player in Russia, where it has a series of joint ventures with the state-controlled oil company.
Exxon Mobile Corp. shares fell 30 cents to close Wednesday at $101.06.
Information for this article was contributed by David Koenig of The Associated Press and by Zain Shauk of Bloomberg News.
Business on 05/29/2014