Exxon

Construction of a four-story, mixed-use building on the former Exxon property in the Oakland Mills Village Center is expected to be completed by summer 2008, officials for the development firm announced this week. Metroventures/USA Inc., a Baltimore-based development firm, is behind the $10 million, 50,000-square-foot office and retail space complex. The announcement comes after years of uncertainty about the future of the 1.7-acre lot, in the 5800 block of Stevens Forest Road, which has been vacant since the gas station closed in 1999.

DALLAS --Exxon Mobil Corp. forecasts global energy demand will rise 50 percent by 2030 and oil will remain the dominant fuel source. The company said yesterday that economic growth in developing countries will drive much of the demand, along with population growth. The forecast came one day after the Energy Department predicted oil prices will remain above $50 a barrel for years. Exxon declined to forecast energy prices, saying only that its expectations of supply and demand don't support current high prices.

Amid worry that Columbia's older villages could succumb to blight as they age, residents of Oakland Mills are wondering why Exxon Mobil Corp. has left a boarded-up gas station as the first thing visitors see in the refurbished village center. The former Exxon station at 5901 Stevens Forest Road closed without warning more than 15 months ago, and the company has yet to submit a plan for what will become of the property. A nearby former convenience store is also vacant. The Rouse Co. spent more than $4 million to renovate the 30-year-old village center, which reopened two years ago with a new 42,000- square-foot Metro Food Market.

A jury awarded more than $150 million yesterday to the neighbors of a northern Baltimore County service station, finding Exxon Mobil Corp. liable for the damage caused when thousands of gallons of gasoline seeped into the groundwater from a leaking pipe. The Baltimore County jury's verdict - delivered after five months of testimony and nearly two weeks of deliberations - directs the oil giant to compensate about 90 Jacksonville families for the lost value of their homes. It also requires Exxon to pay for cancer screenings, and it acknowledges the upheaval caused by the huge spill by awarding millions of dollars for emotional distress.

Leonard Matthews Finley II, a retired employee relations manager for Exxon Corp., died June 18 from Alzheimer's disease at Somerford Assisted-Living in Annapolis. He was 87. Mr. Finley was born and raised in New Orleans, where he was a 1941 graduate of Jesuit High School. His college career at Tulane University was interrupted when he served in the Navy as a seaman from 1943 to 1946. He earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in chemical engineering from Tulane. He joined Exxon Corp.

A lawyer for Exxon Mobil Corp. yesterday promised the residents of a Baltimore County neighborhood that the company would "pay money damages to the people who were harmed" by a 26,000-gallon gasoline leak that contaminated the groundwater beneath their homes two years ago. "We want to make it right," the lawyer, James F. Sanders, said at the start of a trial in which 309 plaintiffs are trying to paint the oil giant as a careless steward of its facilities and...

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks, led by oil shares, rose yesterday amid speculation that Exxon Corp.'s talks to buy Mobil Corp. will spark more mergers. A rally in computer shares such as Microsoft Corp. and Internet stocks sent the Nasdaq Composite Index to its first record since July 20.The possibility of an Exxon-Mobil combination "is going to start merger mania again," said Tim Chesterfield, who helps manage $2.65 billion at Pavilion Asset Management in Brighton, England. Chesterfield said he owns Exxon and may buy more oil stocks.

WASHINGTON - Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, will have to pay as much as $1.3 billion in damages after losing a U.S. Supreme Court fight with gas station owners who didn't receive promised fuel discounts. The court rejected Exxon's bid for a new trial, ruling yesterday that the claims of 11,000 station owners were properly included in a single class action lawsuit in Miami. The 5-4 ruling will have limited application beyond the Exxon dispute, because a federal law enacted in February will govern future class actions.

Cashing in on higher prices and production, oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. surprised Wall Street yesterday with a third-quarter profit of $10.49 billion, putting it on pace to smash earnings records for the full year. Exxon's earnings were the second-highest ever recorded by a publicly traded company - behind its $10.71 billion profit in last year's final quarter - and helped reawaken the public outrage that came with this summer's record-high pump prices. Another big oil company, Royal Dutch Shell also announced earnings yesterday that were well above expectations.

Steve and Rita Howarth have stopped serving houseguests ice cubes in their sodas. Their neighbor Sue Hargest not only drinks bottled water, but she also washes her dishes and brushes her teeth with it. Last year, the Fallston residents learned that their well water contained traces of a gasoline additive, methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE. Although the chemical isn't known to be harmful at the low levels found in their wells, they're taking no chances. "I don't feel safe to drink my water," Hargest said.