Chicago — The man poised to replace Rex Tillerson as the leader of the US’s most influential energy firm helped transform Exxon Mobil’s refining business from a poor cousin of oil production to the primary profit generator. Darren Woods, the company’s refining boss since 2012, may become the next CEO after Tillerson was picked as secretary of state by president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday. Even if Tillerson does not become the top diplomat — three Republican senators have expressed misgivings about his nomination — he is due to retire no later than March, when he will reach Exxon’s mandatory retirement age. Woods, 51, would inherit a drilling and refining behemoth hamstrung by a two-and-a-half-year slump in energy markets, ill-timed investments in North American shale and Russia, and allegations of deceiving investors with a climate-change cover-up. Still, Trump’s election, the plan by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut production and Woods’s ability to b...
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