ExxonMobil CEO says EU sustainability law could force company out of Europe

[ExxonMobil]
Lanier

U.S. oil major ExxonMobil (XOM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/XOM]) will not be able to continue doing business in the European Union if the bloc does not significantly loosen a sustainability law that would penalize companies with fines of 5% of global revenue, CEO Darren Woods told _Reuters._

"If we can't be a successful company in Europe, and more importantly, if they start to try to take their harmful legislation and enforce that all around the world where we do business, it becomes impossible to stay there," Woods said on the sidelines of the ADIPEC meeting in Abu Dhabi.

The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive aims to provide investors with greater visibility into value chain risks and hold non-compliant companies accountable to member states and victims of human rights or environmental violations, including in operations outside Europe.

"We're continuing to advocate to make sure that people really understand the disastrous consequences of this legislation, if it stands as it currently is, and we're going to continue to try to rally basically, business leaders around the world to push back against this legislation," Woods said.

Exxon (NYSE:XOM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/XOM#hasComeFromMpArticle=false#source=section%3Amain_content%7Cbutton%3Abody_link%7Cfirst_level_url%3Anews]) has "slowly been pulling out of Europe," Woods said earlier, noting the company has shut down or exited 19 operations because of what he said was red tape that hurts business.

The European Parliament's legal committee voted in October to water down the EU's corporate sustainability law, which is facing pushback from several companies, including Exxon (NYSE:XOM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/XOM#hasComeFromMpArticle=false#source=section%3Amain_content%7Cbutton%3Abody_link%7Cfirst_level_url%3Anews]) that have said complying with the rules would seriously harm the competitiveness of industries operating in Europe.

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