Good morning, and welcome to the ExxonMobil 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm Jim Chapman, Vice President, Treasurer, and Investor Relations. Today's meeting is being recorded and includes copyrighted material. Please do not record or rebroadcast these materials without our consent. We are conducting this meeting virtually, making it easier for more investors to join. If we encounter any technical issues and can't continue the meeting, please note that the notice of the annual meeting has been properly served. We have a quorum present. All proposals will be considered properly presented. Appointed proxies have cast all votes as set forth on the individual proxy cards. Polls will be closed at 10:15 AM Central Time, and the meeting will be adjourned at that time. Commission on Form 8-K. We'll be making statements today that are forward-looking. Of course, they're subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties.
We've provided more information on the factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from these statements in our cautionary language on the slide, as well as the risk factors section of our most recent Form 10-K. Next, I'll summarize the rules and the items of business that we'll be covering today. In a few minutes, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Darren Woods, will share his thoughts on our many successes of the past year and how ExxonMobil will play a critical role in meeting society's evolving needs long into the future. Darren's business review will be followed by six items of business, including the election of directors, ratification of independent auditors, an advisory vote on executive compensation, a vote on the re-domiciliation of our corporation, and two shareholder proposals.
If you're a shareholder and want to vote or change a prior vote, please follow the voting instructions on your screen. Once the items of business are finished, the polls will be closed. I'll then provide the preliminary results from the Inspectors of Election. We'll next take your questions, and then Darren will provide a few closing remarks. Our board of directors has set some guidelines to help this meeting run smoothly and productively. You can find these rules of conduct in the meeting materials on the website. Only shareholders as of April 1st or their appointed proxies can participate during the meeting. We want to ensure we have adequate time to hear each proposal, as well as to take shareholder questions. As such, each presenter will keep his or her marks to three minutes or less.
To help keep us on time, there will be two audible notifications to remind the presenters they're nearing the end of their allotted time. The first sound will be heard when 30 seconds remain. A second and final notification will occur when 10 seconds remain. At the end of three minutes, the operator will conclude the proponent's remarks. I'll pause now so we can demonstrate the notification. Some of our shareholders submitted questions prior to today's meeting. For those shareholders who would still like to submit a question, you can use the Ask a Question feature in the lower left of your computer screen. We will place priority on questions of general interest that relate to our business. We might also combine some questions if they address similar topics. We'll do our best to answer as many questions as possible within our time commitment.
A list of shareholders who are entitled to vote is available for your inspection. We've included further instructions in the meeting materials on the meeting website. Ellie Sullivan and Lori Chamoun of Computershare were appointed as the Inspectors of Election for this meeting and are participating remotely. Both took an oath of office that was delivered to the secretary for filing with the minutes. Notice of this meeting has been properly given, and the Inspectors of Election have determined that a quorum is present. Now, I'll turn the meeting over to Darren Woods.
Good morning. Thanks for joining us. I'm pleased to share with you ExxonMobil's many recent successes and our plans for a future that I believe will be the brightest in the company's history. ExxonMobil has never been defined by our products. We're more than an oil and gas company. We're more than a transportation fuels, plastics, lubricants, or even carbon capture and storage company. We're a company uniquely built to develop products that meet society's critical needs and solve its biggest challenges, now and far into the future. We're a company defined by our people and their talents and the unique combination of competitive advantages that we've built over decades, scale, technology, integration, execution excellence. We're leveraging these advantages to deliver industry-leading value in each of our businesses. In recent years, we've been transforming ExxonMobil to more fully leverage these advantages.
We moved from 11 independent company silos to one globally integrated enterprise, organized around three businesses and the core capabilities that support them. This is improving how we deploy expertise and capital, how we leverage scale, and how we capture value across the company. The improvements made over the past several years have changed what we work on, how we work, and where we work. On the what, we are focusing the company more deliberately on the opportunities where our advantages matter most, high-value assets, higher-value products, and differentiated technologies that can create more value for our customers and shareholders. Changes in the how can be seen in everything we do. Most recently, we formed a global operations organization, bringing together operating expertise from across the enterprise. This change will help us extend our lead in safety, increase asset utilization, lower cost, and create billions of dollars of additional value.
With one organization directly responsible for all our operations, we'll build on our industry leadership, learn and improve even faster, and set a new benchmark in operational performance. The where we work continues to evolve. Since consolidating our business offices at our Houston campus, we've reduced our office footprint significantly, with more to come. By the end of next year, we expect to have reduced our commercial office footprint by close to 40% versus 2023. For the first time in the company's history, we have the entire corporate leadership team at one site, our Houston campus, working together to grow the value of the enterprise. Later in the meeting, shareholders will vote on the next logical step in where we work, our proposal to re-domicile ExxonMobil from New Jersey to Texas. Texas has been our corporate home for decades.
It's where our leadership team is based, where we manage the company, where the board meets, and where we make every important decision. Importantly, it establishes the corporation in one of the largest economies in the world, with legislators, judges, and juries that understand our business and our contributions to society. The board believes that kind of familiarity will lead to more reasonable, productive decisions from Texas officials and citizens, which is critical for the long-term success of the company. As recent events have highlighted, that's important. The world will continue to depend on energy and hydrocarbon-based products that make modern life possible. This is especially true in developing nations, where billions of people are struggling to improve their standard of living and free themselves from a life of energy poverty. We can help meet this critical need by reliably providing affordable energy and essential products.
We can also help meet the world's growing need for more affordable solutions to reduce emissions. We are uniquely positioned with differentiated capabilities and strong advantages to address this challenge and advance new-to-the-world carbon reduction technologies that are affordable. As we've demonstrated for almost 150 years, as society's needs evolve, so do our company and our products. Change is constant, but some things don't change, like society's need for a company that can transform molecules that form the very foundation of our physical world into products that meet the world's evolving needs. A company like ExxonMobil. It begins with technology, which is at the heart of what we do. You see it across almost every aspect of our businesses today. In the upstream, we've patented a new lightweight proppant that allows us to recover up to 20% more resources from our unconventional wells.
In product solutions, our Singapore Resid Upgrade Project deployed breakthrough proprietary technologies that convert low-value, bottom-of-the-barrel molecules into some of the highest value lubricant base stocks we offer. In our Low Carbon Solutions business, we are advancing a portfolio of potential breakthroughs to deliver a step change in affordable emissions reduction technologies. These are just a few examples of how our scientists and engineers are redefining what's possible. When you invest in ExxonMobil, you're investing in a company with an unmatched record of developing technologies that deliver unmatched value. You're investing in capabilities and competitive advantages developed over decades that can't be replicated. You're investing in a company that has always innovated to meet society's needs, a company that delivers industry-leading returns. In 2025, we demonstrated the strength of our strategy, now in its ninth year, driving value for society and shareholders alike.
We achieved ambitious objectives and expanded our portfolio of profitable growth opportunities. Operationally, we delivered all 10 key projects scheduled for the year, setting a new industry benchmark for project execution. We continue delivering strong results in safety, a bedrock commitment in everything we do, reliability, where we delivered record performance in product solutions, and emissions, where we've already achieved our 2030 plans for corporate greenhouse gas emissions and flaring intensity reductions and expect to reach our 2030 methane intensity reductions by the end of this year, barring any significant impacts from the Iranian conflict. That operational progress translated into strong financial results. In 2025, ExxonMobil generated almost $29 billion in earnings and $52 billion in cash flow from operations. Excluding identified items, earnings per share have grown at a compound annual rate of more than 20% since 2019, well ahead of other IOCs.
Over the past five years, we have delivered industry-leading total shareholder returns. These results reflect deliberate choices we've made over time, developing advantaged assets, improving our portfolio mix, lowering structural cost, and continually improving execution. As we've said before, our goal is not simply to produce more. Our goal is to capture more value from every barrel and molecule we produce. These results reflect more than a strong year. They reflect a company with the strongest portfolio in the industry, one that is becoming more advantaged, more efficient and more resilient through the cycle. You can see that across every part of the company. In upstream, growth in the Permian, Guyana, and LNG continued in both the Permian and Guyana, helping drive the highest annual company production in more than 40 years. Just as important, that production was more advantaged, more profitable, and more resilient.
By 2030, we expect advantage assets to make up about 65% of our upstream portfolio. In product solutions, we brought online new high-value product facilities in China, Singapore, and the U.K., added a renewable diesel facility in Canada, started up a new advanced recycling facility in Baytown, and expanded Proxxima resin production capacity. In addition, we delivered record high-value product sales, significantly improving unit earnings. New businesses like Proxxima Resins and Carbon Materials extend our growth beyond a strong base of fuels, lubricants, and traditional chemical products into new, high-growth, high-margin markets. By 2030, more than 40% of total earnings in product solutions are expected to come from high-value products. These new businesses introduce valuable new products into large markets by leveraging our core strengths in technology, molecular transformation, and large-scale manufacturing.
They extend the same capabilities that have underpinned close to a century and a half of success in our traditional businesses into markets with attractive long-term potential. In carbon capture, for example, we have established an early and substantial lead, with contracts representing roughly 9 million metric tons per year of third-party emissions reductions. This is an important point for investors. The value of your investment in ExxonMobil is driven by capabilities, not products. It's driven through our focus on strengthening our core competitive advantages and applying them to high-value opportunities. Over the past five years, this approach has delivered industry-leading total shareholder returns. It's also led to a stronger balance sheet, which allows us to invest through the cycle and build an even stronger portfolio for the future to drive even greater returns.
Of course, we remain committed to sharing our success with you, our shareholders, through a reliable and growing dividend. In 2025, we increased our annual dividend for the 43rd consecutive year, the longest streak of any IOC, and longer than 95% of companies in the S&P 500. We also completed $20 billion of share repurchases during the year. While I'm very proud of the results we have delivered, I'm even more excited by what is to come. Last December, we raised our 2030 outlook by $5 billion. That's $25 billion more in earnings and $35 billion more in cash flow compared to 2024 at constant prices and margins with no increase in capital. This far exceeds what any of our competitors are doing.
We expect to deliver a return on capital employed greater than 17% by 2030, and we expect to deliver these results with lower relative volatility than peers. We also continue to engage actively with our shareholders. Over the past year, we engaged with shareholders representing about 2 billion shares, roughly 46% of total outstanding shares, and about 76% of institutional shareholdings. We participate in hundreds of conversations each year and have expanded our outreach to retail shareholders as well. Their feedback has been clear. We're focused on the right things and have the right strategy. We're executing at the highest level, and we hold the industry's best portfolio, positioning us for sustained, profitable growth far into the future. When you step back and look across all of our businesses, it is clear nobody has built the kind of company we have.
With our unique competitive advantages and core capabilities, we are producing stronger cash flow, a lower cost structure, increased earnings power, and a broader set of opportunities than we've had at any other point in our history. We are truly in a league of our own with a lot more to come. Before I finish, a quick word on 2026. We are operating in a highly dynamic and volatile world, marked by increasing levels of uncertainty. We've seen unprecedented levels of disruption to supply and logistics systems have become extremely complex. Our ability to accurately forecast the next few months, let alone the next few years, has become almost impossible. Fortunately, we don't have to. We've built our business to perform in volatile markets, through price cycles, and across a variety of disruptions. Today's environment does not change our strategy. It proves its effectiveness.
We remain focused on creating long-term value for shareholders, delivering industry-leading results in the near term while strengthening and extending our competitive advantages for the long run. Thank you for your continued confidence and support. With that, let's turn to the business of the meeting. I'm now placing the six items of formal business listed in the notice before the meeting for a vote. The first proposal is the election of 12 directors. The board nominates the 12 persons identified in the proxy statement. All 12 are qualified to serve on the board. The nominees are currently serving as ExxonMobil directors and are participating in this meeting remotely. They are Michael Angelakis, Angela Braly, Maria Dreyfus, Gregory Garland, John Harris, Kaisa Hietala, Joseph Hooley, Steven Kandarian, Alexander Karsner, Lawrence Kellner, Dina Powell McCormick, and myself. The board recommends a vote for all of our nominees.
I also want to take this opportunity to recognize one of our directors who is retiring from our board, Jeffrey Ubben. Jeff has served on our board since 2021. His broad knowledge, skills, and experience consistently brought valuable and insightful guidance to our environmental, safety, and public policy, and finance committees, as well as to the full board. It has been a pleasure working with him over the years. Jeff, thank you for your contributions and friendship. We'll miss you and wish you all the best. The next item on the agenda is the ratification of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the independent auditor. The board's audit committee has appointed PwC to audit ExxonMobil's financial statements for 2026. PwC is represented today by Simon Tate, who's also participating remotely. The audit committee recommends a vote for ratification of that appointment for the reasons set out in the proxy statement.
The next board proposal calls for an advisory vote to approve executive compensation. The board recommends a vote for this proposal as well. The final board proposal is a vote on the re-domiciliation of the corporation from New Jersey to Texas. ExxonMobil is a Texas corporation in all but name, with nearly all of our senior corporate executives and all corporate functions based in the state for the last 35 years. Our global headquarters are in Texas. Approximately 75% of our U.S. employees are in Texas, as are our U.S.-based research facilities and virtually all of our U.S.-based community and foundation giving. The move will in no way alter our commitment to protecting shareholder rights. The board compared shareholders' rights under New Jersey and Texas laws and believes the economic and voting rights of shareholders are comparable.
Importantly, we are not adopting any elective provisions of the Texas corporate statute that could be viewed as weakening shareholder rights as compared to New Jersey law. The board recommends a vote for this proposal as well. The next order of business is consideration of shareholder proposals, the details of which can be found in the proxy statement previously distributed to shareholders and also posted within the meeting materials on your display. This year, the Securities and Exchange Commission largely deferred to companies in evaluating which proposals were appropriate to include on the proxy ballot. We chose to use a straightforward approach based on our historical experience with SEC no-action letters when making this determination. As is our custom, we discussed these topics in good faith with those who submitted the proposals in an effort to understand the proposals and respond constructively to them.
After we hear from each presenter, we will share our views regarding the proposal and the proponent. We'll also offer our analysis of the impact each proposal would have on the company and shareholder value. Jim will introduce each of the presenters.
Thank you, Darren. As a reminder, all presenters will be given up to three minutes to present their proposals. Item number five is a proposal calling for an independent chair, a proposal ExxonMobil shareholders have overwhelmingly rejected on 16 separate occasions since the year 2000. I understand that Paul Chesser will present the proposal, and operator, please open the line.
Good morning. I'm Paul Chesser of National Legal and Policy Center, urging shareholders to vote for item five, our proposal to separate the offices of chairman and chief executive officer. The case for this proposal is the company's own record under the current combined leadership structure. In November 2024, at the United Nations COP29 Climate Conference, ExxonMobil Chairman CEO Darren Woods argued that the U.S. should remain in the Paris Agreement. That came one week after U.S. voters elected an administration that ran explicitly against the Paris Agreement. In November 2025, the company suspended its high-profile Baytown hydrogen project after roughly $500 million had been spent because the commercial customers it needed never materialized, and the federal subsidies it relied on were withdrawn.
In January this year, at a White House roundtable convened by President Trump to encourage American oil companies to return to Venezuela, Mr. Woods told the President that Venezuela was, quote, "uninvestable." Two days later, the President told reporters that he didn't like Exxon's response and that he was inclined to keep Exxon out. On the company's first quarter earnings call earlier this month, Mr. Woods told analysts that the investment and returns in Venezuela now look promising and that he feels positive about the opportunity there. Now both The New York Times and Bloomberg have reported in the past week that ExxonMobil's negotiating to reenter Venezuela's oil sector. That's three highly publicized strategic misjudgments on signature corporate positions in roughly 18 months. These are not the routine course corrections of an ordinary management team.
These are the kind of unchecked, widely publicized decisions a board with an independent chair would likely test before they're aired publicly. The company's first quarter results disclosed earlier this month showed shareholder distributions ran at more than three times reported free cash flow for the quarter, requiring reliance on cash reserves and additional borrowing. A board that signs off on capital returns at that pace while continuing to fund a low-carbon program whose flagship investment has been suspended with no indication of a restart does not sound like a board that is independently checking management. Instead, it is a board chaired by the manager. We respectfully ask shareholders who've not yet voted to vote for item five. Thank you.
Thank you, Paul. I think I'll let our results speak for themselves. With respect to the proposal, this was brought by a serial proponent, National Legal and Policy Center, NLPC, who this year submitted proposals to multiple companies totaling 29 proposals, including 12 calls for independent board chairs. Of interest, NLPC has already sought to submit a proposal for our 2027 meeting before we've held this year's meeting. In our view, the rate and pace of their proposals does not suggest seriousness of intent. It appears that NLPC believes that repeatedly submitting proxy proposals that do nothing to improve shareholder value establishes relevance for their organization, even if the proposals are time and again, overwhelmingly rejected by shareholders. This is evidenced in their current proposal for an independent board chair. It has been withdrawn or excluded five times and voted down 16 times by ExxonMobil shareholders since 2000.
That's not even a close call. Shareholders have considered this proposal and overwhelmingly rejected it repeatedly, and there's a reason for that. Our current leadership structure works. It supports accountability, aligns strategy with execution, and is balanced by a strong lead independent director and an overwhelmingly independent board. Restricting the board's ability to use its judgment and experience is not in the best interest of shareholders. The board should retain the flexibility to determine the leadership structure best suited to the company's strategy, complexity, and long-term interest. Good governance is measured by results. Under our current structure, we have delivered industry-leading total shareholder returns over the past five years and are building an even stronger portfolio for the future. This proposal assumes ExxonMobil has a governance problem where it does not. We have effective independent oversight.
We have a strong lead independent director role, and 11 of our total directors are fully independent. There is no credible evidence that simply separating the CEO and Chair roles improves governance or shareholder returns. There are examples in our own industry where separate CEOs and Chairs led the board to lose sight of the fundamentals and ultimately destroy shareholder value. This proposal is an example of a zombie proposal that is brought forward by a serial proponent who disregards the clear repeated voice of our shareholders. 16 attempts should be more than enough to conclude that the will of the shareholder is clearly not aligned with this activist proponent. The proponent should be embarrassed by his blatant abuse of a legitimate process for self-promotion. The board recommends shareholders vote against this proposal.
Thank you, Darren. Item number six is a proposal requesting that the company modify its voluntary retail voting program to provide multiple options not aligned with the board's recommendations. I understand that Michael Garland will present the proposal. Operator, please open the line.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, fellow shareholders. I lead the corporate governance team in the New York City Comptroller's Office, and I'm here to present item six on behalf of the proponent, the New York City Police Pension Fund. This proposal seeks to protect long-term shareholder value, preserve corporate accountability, and ensure sound governance. Item six's request is simple, reform Exxon's voluntary retail voting program to provide shareholders with more voting options. Currently, participants have one option, vote in lockstep with the board's recommendations, and this instruction renews annually unless the investor opts out or submits a separate proxy. Item six requests that Exxon offer alternative voting options, such as allowing shareholders to follow an independent voting advisor aligned with their investment priorities. Exxon asserts that additional options go beyond what the SEC approved when it granted Exxon no- action relief the same day Exxon requested it.
This is hardly surprising. Exxon never broached alternative voting options in its no-action request. Due to the fast-tracked approval, the program is active and capable of tilting the outcome of today's vote, including Exxon's reincorporation in Texas, which is being contested. The core risk is thus on full display today. An informed voting consensus opposed to reincorporation could be overridden by automated robo-votes. While some retail investors have handed their votes over to the board, others have carefully evaluated the risks of reincorporating in Texas to cast intentional informed votes. If automated votes from the retail voting program override any deliberate investor consensus, it could compromise the board's legitimacy. A major structural change obtained through default voting rather than true alignment casts doubt on the board's mandate.
After the Comptroller expressed its concerns, Exxon launched ad hominem attacks, accusing us of scaremongering and bullying. When Exxon attacks institutional investors, impugns motives, and treats scrutiny as aggression, it reflects a scorched earth approach that has become increasingly normalized at the highest levels of public life. Board members who remain silent, whether in this annual meeting or behind closed boardroom doors, risk becoming complicit in, and are ultimately accountable for, conduct they would not tolerate in their own organization.
10 seconds, Michael.
I urge shareholders to vote for item six. Thank you.
Thank you, Michael. The New York City Comptroller's Office is just like NLPC, a serial proponent. It submits dozens of proposals to companies each year. In fact, over the last 10 years, the New York City Comptroller's Office has submitted over 200 proposals across multiple companies and industries. This particular proposal is not a serious use of the shareholder proposal process. It asked ExxonMobil to implement voting options that the proponents should have known we could not lawfully provide. In fact, we informed the Comptroller's Office that we were legally prohibited from implementing their proposal, and they still refused to amend or withdraw it. The basis for our legal conclusion is straightforward. Changing the program to allow its use in voting against board recommendations is inconsistent with state law and the board's fiduciary duties. The board is only permitted to advocate for positions it supports.
Enabling automatic voting against its recommendations is illegal, as it puts our company's advocacy at odds with our actions. The New York City Comptroller's Office or any other party is free to implement its own retail voting program, one in which automated voting against the company is facilitated. They simply cannot ask ExxonMobil to do it. Beyond this, the proposal doesn't pass the common sense test. Why would an investor invest in the company with the intent of consistently voting against the board's recommendations? If they believed management and the board were consistently wrong, they wouldn't invest in the company. Only an activist with a conflicting agenda set on undermining the company's current business would value this option, which is why I believe the New York City Comptroller's Office submitted this proposal.
They have a long history of seeking headlines and pressing actions designed to constrain our business and undermine shareholder value. For our shareholders who want the company to grow and deliver return on their investments, I encourage you to sign up for the program. The program is free and entirely voluntary. You can opt in and opt out anytime, free of charge. You still receive the proxy material and can still choose to vote for, against, or abstain on any proposal in the proxy, the same way you always have. Your vote automatically overrides the program vote. The program simply provides a time-saving option that ensures shareholders who support the work the company is doing are heard and takes nothing away from the current process. This program enhances shareholder democracy across a vital and large part of our investor base. Therefore, the board recommends shareholders vote against this proposal.
At this time, I'd ask that you please cast your votes if you have not yet done so. The authorized proxies in attendance today have cast all votes in accordance with the instructions indicated on the individual proxy cards. I'll give everyone a couple of minutes to finalize their voting. Okay, I now declare the polls closed. I'll turn to Jim to report the preliminary results.
Okay. Thank you, Darren. Thanks to all of our shareholders for voting your shares. According to the Inspectors of Election, there are 3.6 billion shares represented at this meeting. That's about 88.1% of outstanding shares entitled to vote. Subject to final tabulation of votes, which should not materially change the results, on average, 97.7% of the votes cast were voted to elect as directors the 12 nominees listed in the proxy statement. The ratification of independent auditors passed with about 96.4% voting in favor, executive compensation was approved with approximately 92.9% in favor. The vote on Texas re-domiciliation passed with approximately 71.3% in favor. The proposal to mandate an independent chair of the board, a proposal overwhelmingly defeated 16 times since 2000, was again not approved. Approximately 15.2% were voted for it.
The proposal to request the company to modify its voluntary retail voting program to provide multiple options not aligned with the board's recommendations was not approved. Approximately 23.5% were voted for it. That concludes this year's voting report. We thank the over 400 registered and beneficial shareholders that have attended this meeting, as well as those listening in as guests. The written report of the Inspector of Election will be filed within the minutes of the meeting. The final votes on each of these matters will be available on our website and reported on Form 8-K as soon as practical.
Thank you, Jim. With the business portion of our meeting now concluded, let's move to our Q&A session. Jim will moderate.
Okay, thanks, Darren. In advance of and during today's call, we got almost 250 questions and comments. We read every one of those, we appreciate you taking time to give us your feedback. To keep things organized and avoid repeating ourselves, we've grouped similar questions together. Darren, our first question relates to shareholder return. This topic was common among the feedback we received, as it was asked by several shareholders, I'll paraphrase. Dividends and returns on ExxonMobil stock are important to shareholders. What is ExxonMobil doing to grow value for long-term shareholders?
Well, I certainly understand the spirit of the question. Shareholders want to know how we are making their investments more valuable and how we are sharing success with them. The board regularly evaluates the best ways to do that, including dividends, share repurchases, capital investments, and other actions. In 2025, we returned $37.2 billion to shareholders, including $17.2 billion in dividends and $20 billion in share repurchases. We also grew our annual dividend for the 43rd consecutive year. ExxonMobil has consistently used dividend distributions to provide reliable and growing cash income to our shareholders. In fact, the company has paid a dividend each year for more than a century. We are now one of the largest dividend payers in the entire S&P 500. ExxonMobil's success at building shareholder value is a direct result of the company's long-term operating investment strategies.
By growing the business profitably and relentlessly striving to increase efficiency and productivity, our worldwide operations have generated solid financial results. From this, we fund attractive capital investments, reliably grow the dividend, and when appropriate, buy back outstanding shares.
Thank you, Darren. Our next question relates to the voluntary retail voting program. Shareholders asked about the program in different ways, but one shareholder, Charles Gagliardi, was particularly straightforward as follows: "Why is the board trying to steal my vote? The board wants me to give them a permanent proxy to vote my shares in their way. Is the voting not rigged enough already?
Thank you, Charles. We appreciate your investment in our company and your interest in our new program. Retail investors represent about 40% of our shareholder base, yet their voices often go unheard. Only one in four retail investors vote at our annual meetings. Many say it is too much of a hassle. Our program makes it easier for them to vote so their voice can be heard. It's not a permanent proxy. Shareholders are reminded annually that they can opt out. Shareholders who are in the program can still receive the proxy material and can still choose to vote for, against, or abstain on any proposal in the proxy the same way they always have. Their vote overrides the program vote. The program is free and entirely voluntary. Shareholders have to opt in, and they can opt out anytime, free of charge.
The program simply provides a time-saving option that ensures shareholders who support the work the company is doing are heard and takes nothing away from the current process. We are encouraged by the positive feedback and strong participation thus far. Over 100,000 retail shareholders are currently participating in the program, representing over 150 million shares outstanding.
All right. Our next question relates to the upcoming midterm elections and was submitted by a shareholder, B. Smith. These last few years have almost seemed like a roller coaster of government policy. Will you be pulled in yet another different direction after the midterm elections coming up?
Thank you for the question. Given the political environment we live in today, I very much understand the context of your question, it is important to remember that ExxonMobil doesn't build our strategy around election cycles, political parties, or ideology. We focus on long-term macroeconomic fundamentals. We believe that in the long run, governments and policymakers will do what is best for their constituents, which will lead to growing economies and improving prosperity. Our focus is on building a business that succeeds in that kind of policy environment. With that said, short-term policy does matter. In a capital-intensive industry, project takes years to develop. Stable, durable policy supports investment, energy security, and lower emission solutions. Uncertainty generally slows investment. We engage constructively with policymakers from both parties and at all levels of government, irrespective of which party is in power.
Our focus is practical policy that supports affordable and reliable energy, economic growth, and the development of affordable technologies that reduce emissions. Bottom line, while political control changes and policy direction can swing back and forth, we stay true to a course based on an objective and thorough understanding of long-term fundamentals.
Thank you, Darren. Our next question comes from shareholder Fabian Mindy, who asks, what are you doing differently to enhance business performance since net income has decreased in 2025?
Appreciate the question, Fabian. Let me start maybe with some perspective. Our earnings in any one year are driven primarily by commodity prices, which are set by the market. As a result, our year-to-year earnings move up and down with the changes in market prices, something that we don't control. In 2025, excuse me, commodity prices were lower than in 2024. As a result, reported earnings and cash flows were lower. However, the underlying performance of the company improved materially. We assess this by evaluating earnings and cash flow on a constant price and margin basis. Our 2025 results on a price-normalized basis reflect structurally higher earnings. All our businesses delivered advantage volumes growth, contributing $2.3 billion to year-on-year earnings. In addition, every business structurally reduced their cost, contributing a further $2.3 billion to after-tax earnings versus 2024.
In the upstream, advantage assets in the Permian, Guyana, and LNG represented 59% of production, up 7% versus 2024. In 2025, we delivered our highest production volumes in over 40 years. In the downstream, we delivered record high-value product sales and laid the groundwork for future earnings growth by bringing six strategic projects online. In Low Carbon Solutions, our CCS business grew CO2 under contract to roughly 9 million tons per year. For perspective, this is equivalent to replacing nearly 3.5 million cars with electric vehicles, which is roughly two and a half times the total number of EVs sold in the U.S. in 2024. Excluding the commodity price environment, it is clear that our underlying business has improved. Longer term, our five-year plans that we discuss publicly every year provide the detailed actions we are pursuing to continue to grow value far into the future.
All right. Thank you, Darren. The next question relates to climate issues and comes to us from a shareholder, Theodora Economou, who asks, "Is there any thought to ameliorate climate change?
Appreciate the question. The short answer is yes. We're focused on solving what we call the and equation, meeting the energy and product needs of a growing world and reducing emissions. We're pursuing affordable solutions that work at scale without compromising access to affordable and reliable energy. Our plans today include about $20 billion in lower emissions investments from 2025 through 2030. We're already achieving and beating our 2030 emissions intensity reduction plans. We've achieved our plans for corporate greenhouse gas emissions intensity and flaring intensity reductions. We expect to reach our methane intensity reduction plans by the end of this year. We are building a robust business that is positioned to grow in a lower emissions future, including carbon capture and storage, lower emission fuels, advanced materials, lithium, and other technologies.
We're working with governments around the world on policy solutions that will bring emissions down more effectively and affordably, including a rational framework for carbon emissions counting. The world needs lower emissions, but it also needs reliable energy and essential products. We are working on both.
Okay, Darren, our next question addresses carbon capture and sequestration. It was submitted by a shareholder, Joshua McBride, who asks, "ExxonMobil has invested time and money into CCS pipeline networks. I know this is a new business, but how long do you think it will take before CCS contracts from third-party customers will become profitable without government support? How big could that business opportunity get?
Thank you, Joshua. I wish I could answer this question, but honestly, I don't know. I don't know when the world's population will decide emissions reductions are important enough to pay for, or when policymakers abandon ideology and implement policies that harness market forces and incentivize innovation. We are working very hard to help governments around the world develop more effective policy approaches. In the meantime, we're focused on contributing where we can bring unique value and generate attractive returns that compete for capital versus our other opportunities. ExxonMobil is uniquely positioned to provide solutions for hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the economy, where industrial customers need practical ways to reduce emissions. CCS is a good example of this. It leverages ExxonMobil's core capabilities, complex molecule management, subsurface expertise, and large-scale project execution.
We've already made meaningful commercial progress with approximately 9 million metric tons per year of CO2 under contract, and a large-scale end-to-end CCS network under development. CCS is also opening new decarbonization opportunities, such as low-carbon power for data centers. We're not interested in building a power generation business. We can partner with power providers to capture, transport, and store their CO2 emissions and provide data center customers with access to reliable, low-carbon power. In this entire area we're staying disciplined, only pursuing the opportunities where we bring a real advantage and generate attractive returns. We're also staying flexible and adjusting as the environment evolves. We believe that the world will eventually need CCS at scale. When it does, we'll be ready.
Okay, thanks, Darren. Our next question comes from our shareholder, Sarah Thompson, and relates to the use of AI. Sarah asks, "I believe artificial intelligence is going to change the world. How are you using AI in your business, and how can you and the board of directors be sure it is being used responsibly?
Well, at its core, ExxonMobil is a technology company. ExxonMobil has used advanced analytics, automation, proprietary models, and digital technology for decades to improve exploration, operations, reliability, logistics, and safety. Today, we're leveraging proprietary technology and AI capabilities to drive further competitive advantage. AI is powerful, is only as useful as the data, expertise, controls, and judgment behind it. That's where ExxonMobil has an advantage. One of the biggest opportunities we see is combining AI with our scale, technical depth, and enterprise-wide data foundation. Our new process and data platform is designed to connect data, transactions, and decisions across businesses, geographies, and functions, enabling us to learn faster, act faster, and deploy AI at scale. We're already applying AI capabilities in practical ways, including seismic interpretation, logistics optimization, remote operations, maintenance reliability, and supply chain planning.
With respect to responsible use cases, we have a very tight oversight and control of AI use within the company. We are centrally managing the development and deployment of AI applications and have regular reviews with senior management and the board.
All right. Thank you, Darren. We have time for one more final question. I see one that has been trending live with our shareholders related to gas prices and the Middle East conflict. The question, as submitted by Josh Brown, is, "Gas is so expensive these days. The war with Iran is just making things worse for consumers. What are you doing to bring down prices for consumers? How will the Iran war affect earnings?"
Well, thanks for the question, Josh. I know that's an important question and on many people's minds, including our shareholders. Let me start with the fact that oil and gas are global commodities traded in a very efficient, deep market where prices are set by global supply and demand balances. There is no company in the industry that sets prices. No one company or country is big enough. As big as we are, we're only about 3% of global supply, so we can't affect prices. What we can do is increase production wherever it's possible and profitable, and that's what we're doing. In fact, we are growing production more than any other major integrated company in the industry. We're on track to grow full-year Permian production to 1 million oil equivalent barrels per day by year-end. That's about 200,000 oil equivalent barrels per day more than last year.
We're achieving record production in Guyana at increasingly lower cost of supply. We just brought online an LNG facility that, in its initial phase, will increase U.S. LNG exports by 5%. All this puts more supply on the market and helps ensure that we don't run out of the energy products we all depend on. As for earnings, the Middle East disruption is affecting global prices, which will have an impact on our earnings. As a price taker, we don't focus on price. Our strategy is to develop the most cost-advantaged barrels and run efficient operations reliably. If we do this, we will be profitable in any environment. Obviously, in higher-priced environments, we are more profitable. With that, I'm going to conclude the Q&A session. I appreciate the questions and your participation in today's meeting.
All right. Thank you, Darren. Perhaps you'd like to say a few words just to close the meeting.
Yeah, thank you, Jim. This is an exciting time for ExxonMobil. I'm proud of the organization and the work they've been doing. That hard work and the commitment of our people drove exceptional results in 2025, and our momentum has carried into this year. We never lose sight of the fact that we're working for you, our shareholders. I want to thank you for your support and the continued trust and confidence you placed in our company. As stewards of the capital you've entrusted to us, we'll continue to execute on our plans to create significant long-term shareholder value under any market conditions. This concludes our meeting. Have a great day.