Exxon Mobil’s head of shale operations was jailed on a sexual assault charge as his longtime employer reportedly plans to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources in a multibillion-dollar deal.
David Scott was arrested early Thursday at a La Quinta Inn & Suites hotel in Magnolia, Texas, for second-degree felony assault — a charge that defines certain types nonconsensual sexual contact — according to Bloomberg.
The hotel is located just about 15 miles northwest of Exxon’s headquarters in Spring, Texas, which is set on a 385-acre campus and caters to 10,000 staffers, the outlet reported.
Scott’s bail was set at $30,000. Records at Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in Texas show that he was bonded out on Monday.
As of Sunday, Scott had still been behind bars because he was refusing to surrender his Australian passport to probation officers.
The charges against Scott carry a prison sentence between two and 20 years in Texas.
Scott was arrested amid Exxon’s advanced talks to buy up Pioneer Natural Resources in a deal that could value the Permian shale basin producer at about $60 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
The acquisition would be Exxon’s biggest since its $81 billion deal for Mobil in 1998, and would expand its footprint in one of the most lucrative regions of the US oil patch.
Though Scott’s team is reportedly central in the talks between Exxon and Pioneer, it’s unclear what role he has played — if any — in the ]merger.
The executive has climbed his way up Exxon’s ranks since he started at the company’s Melbourne, Australia, hub as a facilities engineer in 1997.
Scott’s LinkedIn profile shows that he held different roles with Exxon in Malaysia, the UK and Abu Dhabi before settling into a position in Houston, Texas, in 2018.
Months before his 27th anniversary working for Exxon, Scott was promoted into a senior-level vice president role in February, his LinkedIn shows.
An Exxon spokeswoman told Bloomberg over the weekend that Scott is not working for the company while his case remains open.
It’s unclear if Exxon has furloughed or sacked in the days since.
Representatives for Exxon did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Exxon, which has a market value of $436 billion, is the largest US oil producer with an average 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from its global operations.
Last year it earned a record $55.7 billion thanks to high oil and gas prices and ended the year with $29.6 billion in cash.
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