ExxonMobil and Abu Dhabi

Coordination team ensures
critical business continues
Well before Hurricane Ike made landfall, ExxonMobil activated
its Regional Response Coordination Team (RRCT) to monitor
the storm and take the necessary steps to ensure business
continuity, ultimately deploying more than 400 essential personnel
to the company’s Pegasus Place facility in Dallas.
The purpose of the RRCT, which consists of representatives
from all business and service lines including Information
Technology, Facilities Management, Procurement, Safety,
Health and Environment, Security, Human Resources and
other support groups, is to provide cross-functional coordination
during the recovery efforts and to assist in operating
ExxonMobil’s businesses as smoothly as possible while the
affected infrastructure is returning to normal.
For example, the company’s Global Real Estate and
Facilities unit coordinated the inspection of more than 9,000
Houston-area offices and workstations within five days of
landfall, assessing damage and initiating repairs, and making
sure facilities were safe for staff to return to work.
Information Technology (IT) assigned personnel to the
Houston data center who worked in shifts around the clock
during and after the storm to ensure ExxonMobil’s critical
processes were not interrupted. Facilities and IT also collaborated
to provide close to 500 alternative work locations
for employees in the early recovery phase.
The company’s Procurement group placed close to 1,000
purchase orders to support the immediate recovery process,
from portable generators to more than 10,000 bottles
of water for employees, while utility and city services were
unavailable.
“Communication is key,” says Andreas Goldschmid, of the
RRCT leadership team. “To ensure business continuity, we
coordinate not only with every ExxonMobil company, but with
the weather service, government and emergency-response
officials, employees and contractors to make sure we understand
and manage the cross-functional needs of the corporation
while getting activities safely back to normal.”
11
limited products, but we focused
on the things people needed
most: fuel, water, batteries and
ice. And our retail employees
were crucial to this effort, going
above and beyond what was
expected during the evacuation
and recovery periods.”
Each ExxonMobil store
reopened only if members of
Gore’s team were certain they had
what they call the three “P’s” in
place: People able to safely come
back to work; Product to keep
the location stocked with fuel; and
Power supplied either by a generator
or by the utility company.
More trucks and drivers
After Hurricane Ike, ExxonMobil
opened stores in Houston days
ahead of most other suppliers,
so additional fuel trucks were
brought in to meet the demand.
“Our base operation in Houston
is eight trucks with 25 drivers,”
says June Harper, North America
customer service manager. “To
respond to Ike, we increased that
to 14 trucks and 43 drivers. We
brought in trucks from nearby cities
and flew the drivers to Texas
from across the country.”
Normally, one truckload of
gasoline – about 9,000 gallons –
lasts two or three days. Larger
stores might take two truckloads
a day, but when there are cars
waiting in line, a load lasts barely
four hours.
For safety, extra drivers were
used to make sure the trucks
could keep running around the
clock and that the drivers would
get enough rest between shifts.
In the aftermath of Gustav
and Ike, the safety record across
the entire retail organization was
outstanding. Even with all of the
extra drivers and more than 700
workers helping to reopen stores,
there was not a single accident.
Focused response
to hurricane fury
Although hurricane landfall,
severity and impact are unpredictable,
the ExxonMobil
response is second to none. The
focus is on taking care of our
people, facilities, customers and
communities where we operate.
“We plan, prepare and have
strong processes in place
across the downstream to deal
with hurricanes,” notes Denny
Houston, who leads the downstream
hurricane response
organization. “We quickly and
fully utilize our
flexibility, experience
and global
collaboration
to manage the response. The
To learn more
exxonmobil.com/
stormupdates
ExxonMobil response to Gustav
and Ike is a great story for our
shareholders, employees, customers
and communities. We
are all proud of what we accomplished
as a team.” the Lamp
After Hurricane Ike, ExxonMobil was able
to open its Houston retail stores days
ahead of most other suppliers, and extra
drivers and trucks were brought to the city
to keep deliveries moving to customers.
Photo by Gary Blockley