ExxonMobil Seeks to Move Legal Home to Texas After 144 Years in New Jersey

ExxonMobil has announced plans to move its legal home from New Jersey to Texas, joining a growing number of companies that have relocated to the Lone Star State in search of a more business-friendly environment.

The major oil corporation said on March 10 that its board had unanimously recommended shareholders approve the change. Although the company was originally incorporated in New Jersey in 1882, ExxonMobil said its leadership and core operations have long since shifted to Texas.

Describing ExxonMobil’s connection to New Jersey as “largely historical,” the board said it has not held a meeting there for more than 40 years, and said that Texas better understands the oil and gas industry and is more invested in the company’s success.

“Over the past several years, Texas has made a noticeable effort to embrace the business community,” ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said in a statement. “In doing so, it has created a policy and regulatory environment that can allow the company to maximize shareholder value.”

The rationale was laid out in greater detail in ExxonMobil’s preliminary proxy statement filed the same day with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In that filing, the board said ditching New Jersey for Texas “may reduce the risk of future frivolous litigation.”

“Texas legislators, judges, and juries who might make decisions that impact ExxonMobil are generally more familiar with our complex business and operations,” the filing states. “That kind of familiarity means we are more likely to get reasonable, productive decisions from Texas officials and citizens.”

The filing added that Texas officials and residents are also more likely to recognize the industry’s benefits to the state, including reliable and affordable energy, jobs, tax revenue, and long-standing community involvement.

“In this regard, Texans have a stake in the health of our industry, and ExxonMobil specifically, meaning shareholders’ interests are in the hands of people who have potentially aligned goals,” the company said.

ExxonMobil also said provisions in the Texas Business Organizations Code may better protect the company from what it described as “opportunistic or frivolous inspection demands” than New Jersey law, reducing the time and cost associated with litigation or threats of litigation.

Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the proposal at ExxonMobil’s 2026 annual meeting on May 27. If approved, Texas could become the company’s legal domicile as early as June 1.

About 30 percent of ExxonMobil’s global workforce is already based in Texas, according to the board, while roughly 75 percent of its U.S. employees work in the state.

Texas has sought to attract companies in recent years by touting its low-tax, low-regulation environment and by launching a new stock exchange in Dallas. Tesla and SpaceX both moved their legal homes from Delaware to Texas two years ago, while Chevron relocated its physical headquarters from California to Houston last year.

ExxonMobil traces its roots to Standard Oil, the company founded by industrialist John D. Rockefeller in 1870 and incorporated in New Jersey in 1882. After the company was broken up by a Supreme Court ruling in 1911 based on antitrust considerations, Standard Oil of New Jersey emerged as the largest of the successor companies and later became Exxon.

The company moved its headquarters in 1989 to Irving, a suburb of Dallas. Under Woods, Exxon moved its headquarters again in 2023, to Spring, a suburb of Houston.