Accounting Changes

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

New Accounting Pronouncements And Changes In Accounting Principles [Abstract]

2. Accounting Changes

Effective January 1, 2018, ExxonMobil adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Standard, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), as amended. The standard establishes a single revenue recognition model for all contracts with customers, eliminates industry and transaction specific requirements, and expands disclosure requirements. The standard was adopted using the Modified Retrospective method, under which prior year results are not restated, but supplemental information is provided for any material impacts of the standard on 2018 results. The adoption of the standard did not have a material impact on any of the lines reported in the Corporation’s financial statements. The cumulative effect of adoption of the standard was de minimis. The Corporation did not elect any practical expedients that require disclosure.

Effective January 1, 2018, ExxonMobil adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Update, Financial Instruments – Overall (Subtopic 825-10): Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities. The standard requires investments in equity securities other than consolidated subsidiaries and equity method investments to be measured at fair value with changes in the fair value recognized through net income. The Corporation elected a modified approach for equity securities that do not have a readily determinable fair value. This modified approach measures investments at cost minus impairment, if any, plus or minus changes resulting from observable price changes in orderly transactions for the identical or a similar investment of the same issuer. The cumulative effect adjustment related to the adoption of this standard increased opening 2018 retained earnings $47 million.

Effective January 1, 2018, ExxonMobil adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Update, Compensation – Retirement Benefits (Topic 715): Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost. The update requires separate presentation of the service cost component from other components of net benefit costs. The other components are reported in a new line on the Corporation’s Statement of Income, “Non-service pension and postretirement benefit expense”. The Corporation elected to use the practical expedient which uses the amounts disclosed in the pension and other postretirement benefit plan note for the prior comparative periods as the estimation basis for applying the retrospective presentation requirements, as it is impracticable to determine the amounts capitalized in those periods. Beginning in 2018, the other components of net benefit costs are included in the Corporate and financing segment. The estimated after-tax impact from the change in segmentation is an increase in Corporate and financing expenses of about $450 million for 2018. The increase in the Corporate and financing expenses is offset by lower expenses across the operating segments. Additionally, only the service cost component of net benefit costs is eligible for capitalization in situations where it is otherwise appropriate to capitalize employee costs in connection with the construction or production of an asset.

The impact of the retrospective presentation change on ExxonMobil's Consolidated Statement of Income for 2017 and 2016 is shown below.


	2017			2016
	As Reported	Change	As Adjusted	As Reported	Change	As Adjusted
	(millions of dollars)

Production and manufacturing expenses	34,128	(1,438)	32,690	31,927	(1,479)	30,448
Selling, general and administrative expenses	10,956	(307)	10,649	10,799	(356)	10,443
Non-service pension and postretirement benefit expense	-	1,745	1,745	-	1,835	1,835

Effective January 1, 2019, the Corporation adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Standard, Leases (Topic 842), as amended. The standard requires all leases to be recorded on the balance sheet as a right of use asset and a lease liability. The Corporation used a transition method that applies the new lease standard at January 1, 2019, and recognizes any cumulative-effect adjustments to the opening balance of 2019 retained earnings. The Corporation applied a policy election to exclude short-term leases from balance sheet recognition and also elected certain practical expedients at adoption. As permitted under these expedients the Corporation did not reassess whether existing contracts are or contain leases, the lease classification for any existing leases, initial direct costs for any existing lease and whether existing land easements and rights of way, that were not previously accounted for as leases, are or contain a lease. At January 1, 2019, the operating lease liability is estimated to be in the range of $3.3 billion and the operating lease right of use asset is estimated to be in the range of $4.3 billion, including about $1.0 billion related to prepaid leases. The cumulative effect adjustment is expected to be de minimis.