If XOM had not eliminated over 200 billion dollars of cash in stock buybacks, they would not be in this situation. Absolutely every other legal investment imaginable would have been smarter than stock buybacks which turns cash into zero value instantly. Cannot sell the stock from the buyback program to get any of the value back.
Even just leaving that money in a savings account with less than 1% interest would have been smarter than stock buybacks.
Should have purchased CVX stock with that 200 billion dollars instead of XOM stock. Would have $400 billion in value today instead of $0 buyback unsellable self owned stock.