Big Oil Lends Support to Global Crises

SAN RAMON, Calif. and IRVING, Texas -- Two Big Oil companies -- Chevron Corp. and ExxonMobil Corp. -- are lending their support to separate global crises.

ExxonMobil will participate in a series of events in the United States, Africa and Europe to commemorate Africa Malaria Day 2007 (April 25). Meanwhile, Chevron is partnering with the government of Aceh, the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for Aceh and Nias, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to develop a polytechnic institute in the tsunami-affected Aceh province of Indonesia.

Chevron signed a memorandum of understanding with the other parties during a ceremony at the site of the proposed vocational training facility. The initiative follows a short-term vocational training program that enabled 350 students from Aceh and Nias to graduate from the Chevron Polytechnic Institute in the Riau province.

The proposed Aceh Polytechnic is part of the Vocational Training Alliance for Aceh, a $10 million commitment from Chevron and USAID to support vocational training needs in the province. The alliance supports the Government of Indonesia's plan to assist in restoring people's livelihoods following the tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004.

Aceh Polytechnic is expected to provide vocational training in applied technology fields, such as information technology, electronics telecommunication and business accountancy, which are critical to the continued reconstruction and development in the province.

"This demonstrates Chevron's continued long-term commitment to reconstruction in Aceh, leveraging our collective strengths and capabilities for the benefit of Indonesia," said John Watson, president of Chevron International Exploration and Production.

Chevron has had a presence in Indonesia since 1924 when it began exploration activities, through a wholly owned subsidiary, PT. Chevron Pacific Indonesia.

ExxonMobil, on the other hand, has contributed nearly $100 million to African community projects since 2000, and is committing an additional $10 million this year to the fight against malaria. ExxonMobil is the largest non-pharmaceutical corporate donor to malaria research and development efforts and the largest corporate donor to the president's Malaria Initiative (PMI).

"With a workforce in Africa that numbers in the thousands, and as one of the largest direct foreign investors in the continent, ExxonMobil has witnessed first-hand the devastating impact of malaria and other infectious diseases," said Rex Tillerson, chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil Corp. "We are proud to do our part to help advocate for needed resources, innovative solutions and a new level of global collaboration to achieve results in the fight against malaria."

Africa Malaria Day marks the anniversary of the signing of the 2000 Abuja Declaration, in which African heads of state committed to reducing malaria-related deaths by half by the end of this decade. That same year, the ExxonMobil Foundation -- the primary philanthropic arm of ExxonMobil in the U.S. -- established its Africa Health Initiative, which supports disease prevention, control and treatment programs focused on malaria.

ExxonMobil will participate in a variety of programs spanning the globe on Africa Malaria Day, designed to bring attention to, mobilize action in, and raise funds for the fight against malaria, a disease that kills more than one million Africans each year.

In Africa, where malaria takes 3,000 lives each day, ExxonMobil is supporting bed net distributions in Nigeria, Angola, Chad, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. The company also will announce a number of grants, totaling more than $4 million, to organizations combating malaria and saving lives in those countries.

In addition, in the U.S., the ExxonMobil Foundation is making a $3 million "challenge grant" that matches donations dollar-for-dollar to Malaria No More, a new nonprofit with the mission to engage individuals, organizations, and corporations to provide life-saving bed nets and other critical interventions in the fight against malaria. The grant will be featured as part of "Idol Gives Back," to air April 25 on FOX-TV's "American Idol".

Additionally, ExxonMobil is working in partnership with leading malaria nongovernmental organizations to raise awareness of the disease on Capitol Hill by supporting a malaria information display in Washington, D.C.

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