Exxon Corporation and Mobil Corporation have announced the completion of their merger, which became effective November 30, 1999. The new company will be known as ExxonMobil Corporation and is headquartered in Irving, Texas.\rAs a result of the merger, the responsibility for the aviation fuel activities including military sales of EssoAir International, Esso Affiliates, Exxon USA and Mobil Aviation affiliates will be combined under a new aviation company, ExxonMobil Aviation. \rWith its headquarters in Leatherhead in the UK, the new aviation business will have responsibility for the ExxonMobil worldwide aviation network. \rAn EssoAir International spokesman said: "Our new organisation will enable us to provide customers with high quality products and services at competitive prices through a global network. ExxonMobil Aviation will be able to supply fuel in 85 countries with a network of more than 250 airport locations and over 470 general aviation sites."\rThe new structure of ExxonMobil Corporation is built on a concept of 11 separate global businesses, designed to allow the company to compete more effectively. \rBacking the merger to the hilt, Lee Raymond, chairman and chief executive officer of the corporation, said: "We are convinced that the combined company will achieve a higher return on capital than either company could have done alone."\rRaymond added that by mid-December the company will announce a revised forecast of merger benefits that will likely exceed the $2.8 billion annual level announced last year.\rPrevious to last month's official merging, Raymond noted that a significant amount of merger planning and transition work had already been completed. He said: "We started in the first quarter of 1999 with 150 people assigned to about 25 'core' transition teams. That number grew to more than 1,500 Exxon and Mobil people working on 140 teams just prior to closing. Throughout the process the teams have functioned extremely well."\rThe primary objective of the move, said Raymond, was to create "a better company, not a bigger company". "It is different from either of its components and from any other company in the energy industry today," he said.\rSpeaking about the impact this may have on competition in the industry, he said: "A key benefit of the merger is that it allows us to compete more effectively with the recently combined multinational oil companies and the very large state-owned oil companies that are rapidly expanding outside their home areas.\r"In addition, ExxonMobil will benefit as proprietary technology and customer offerings that were developed separately, are shared and further improved."\rSpeaking with regard to the company's individual brands, Lou Noto, vice chairman of ExxonMobil said that the Exxon, Esso and Mobil brands will be retained.\rThe nineteen member board of directors will be comprised of six representatives from Mobil and thirteen from Exxon.