Any business will have detractors and supporters. Oil companies are especially prone to this, as so many people blame them for the prices of gas at the pump. ExxonMobil may not set the price of gas, but it continually makes profits. While these profits come rolling in, allegations of human rights violations, war profiteering, ignoring environmental safety regulations, funding climate change deniers, and other things, have rolled in just as fast. To help sort through the hype, here are some known facts about ExxonMobil.

Fact 1: John D. Rockefeller started Standard Oil in 1870. In 1904, a serialized study by journalist Ida Tarbell exposed Standard Oil for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in 1911, breaking the corporation into 34 different companies.

Fact 2: After the division, the Standard Oil co. of New Jersey was formed, which would later change its name to Exxon. The Standard Oil Co. of New York would change its name to Mobil. In 1999 Exxon and Mobil merged into Exxon Mobil Corporation.

Fact 3: ExxonMobil is transitioning away from running gas stations. Like a franchise, the gas stations will continue to sell ExxonMobil gas, but the stations will not be owned by ExxonMobil.

Fact 4: ExxonMobil branched out, buying XTO Energy in 2010. XTO Energy produces and refines natural gas along with oil and is based in Fort Worth, Texas. ExxonMobil has its headquarters in Irving, Texas, less than 30 miles away.

Fact 5: Big Oil or supermajors are terms used to group together the largest publicly owned oil and gas companies. These are different than the OPEC oil countries, as those are owned by the governments of those countries. Big Oil was a term coined in the 1960s, while supermajors is more modern. ExxonMobil is one of the supermajors.

Fact 6: Every year since 2005, ExxonMobil has broken profit records. 8 of the 10 slots on the record of Largest Corporate Quarterly Earnings of All Time and 5 out of 10 slots on the Largest Corporate Annual Earning are occupied by ExxonMobil.

Fact 7: In 2007, ExxonMobil contributed $6.6 million to social and environmental groups, yet they were still in court, fighting the $5 billion in damages assessed to them for the Exxon Valdez oil spill on March 24, 1989.

Fact 8: As of 2009, ExxonMobil was still using the sister ship of the Exxon Valdez, the SeaRiver Long Beach. ExxonMobil also uses single-hull tankers, when a double-hull might have prevented the Exxon Valdez oil spill. ExxonMobil uses more single-hull tankers than the rest of the suppermajors combined.

Fact 9: As of January 2007, ExxonMobil spokespeople claimed that the company was no longer funding the Competitive Enterprise Institute and ‘˜five or six’ similar groups that denied manmade climate change.

Fact 10:  J. Bryan Williams, former senior executive of ExxonMobil was convicted of income tax evasion in September of 2003. Official court documents list millions of dollars that taxes were not paid on, money that came from kickbacks from people, governments and companies Williams worked with while employed at ExxonMobil.