ExxonMobil Corporation’s Thailand affiliate, Esso Public Company Limited, has operated in Thailand for more than 100 years. Since its establishment in 1894, the ExxonMobil affiliate has taken advantage of Thailand’s strategic location, high-skilled workforce and business-friendly incentives to grow its operations in the Asia-Pacific region. With one of the largest petrochemical sites in the world and a growing pipeline, Thailand continues to offer attractive opportunities for growth in this sector.

Today, Esso has approximately 550 retail outlets throughout Thailand and sells products under the Esso, Mobil and ExxonMobil brand names, including liquefied petroleum gas, different grades of unleaded gasoline, aviation fuels, kerosene, diesel fuel, fuel oil, chemicals, asphalts and lubricants. It is a major fuel manufacturer and distributor in the region, with a network of product distribution terminals throughout the country as well as an ultra-modern refinery in Sriracha, Chon Buri province, that has a capacity (on a stream day basis) of 177,000 barrels per day.  This refinery is expected to increase the supply of lower sulfur motor fuels by more than 50,000 barrels per day.  

Over the past 10 years, the company has extensively expanded its functions in Thailand, from opening its regional headquarters, the Bangkok Business Support Center, to growing its fuel manufacturing and distribution activities. In 2001, Thailand’s Revenue Department announced an incentives package for foreign investors that establish a regional operating headquarters in Thailand. Incentives from this package included a number of tax privileges, permission to hold 100 percent foreign ownership and to own land. In addition, the Thailand Board of Investment provided a wide range of services to help these companies seamlessly set up their regional headquarters, including work permit and visa facilitation. ExxonMobil’s proposal to open a Bangkok Business Support Center for the Asia-Pacific region was the first project to be approved for the program by Thailand’s Board of Investment.

ExxonMobil chose to open its Business Support Center in Thailand due to its past experience in Thailand serving the company’s units in the country and region, as well as Thailand’s business-friendly tax incentives. As it looked to centralize its operations in the Asia-Pacific region, Thailand was an advantageous choice for a regional operating headquarters, given the company’s decades of success in the country. The ExxonMobil’s Thailand regional headquarters is the company’s first in the Asia Pacific region.

“Thailand was chosen because of the company’s long-term success in the country,” said David Levy, ExxonMobil’s country manager at the time of the project’s announcement. “In addition, Thailand has proven to be competitive in many important areas including infrastructure, availability of relevant skills, language proficiency and legal and statutory requirements.” 

Under the plan, the company moved its regional headquarters to Bangkok, centralizing management and technical services for its subsidiaries in seven surrounding countries. ExxonMobil spent 160 million baht (approximately $5 million dollars) to expand its existing operations into the full service Bangkok Business Support Center and created more than 2,000 jobs. Today, the Center continues to support ExxonMobil’s affiliates throughout the country and the Asia-Pacific region in operations including accounting services, information systems, payroll and human resource data administration, accounts payable and customer services.

“We have been attracted by the new incentives for regional hub buildings here,” added Pipop Pruecksamas, then-director of Esso Plc. “Thailand is our first headquarters for the Asia-Pacific. Similar centers are operating in the US and Europe. It’s time for us to consolidate these services for the whole region in order to be more efficient.”