Finance

Exxon Faces More Pressure Than Ever to Release a Private Outlook

Expecting a transition to clean energy, U.S. investors want Exxon and Chevron to follow BP and Shell in disclosing long-term price assumptions.

Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg
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America’s biggest oil companies are coming under increasing pressure from climate-conscious investors to disclose their long-term forecasts for crude prices as the Covid-19 pandemic injects fresh uncertainty into the demand outlook for fossil fuels.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. don’t publish such estimates, meaning that shareholders are less able to scrutinize how the companies’ investment plans square with expectations for a global transition to clean energy. That needs to change, according to the New York State Common Retirement Fund, California State Teachers’ Retirement System, and Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of investors with $30 trillion of assets.