‘Stranded Assets’ Risk Rising With Climate Action and $40 Oil

By Laura Hurst | Bloomberg:

September 18, 2020 at 7:55 a.m. GMT+1

What had seemed like an abstract debate about leaving oil, gas and coal in the ground to fight climate change has suddenly become real. Environmental activists have long fought for lower fossil-fuel production. Now, with the pandemic crippling economies and reducing energy use and prices, drillers and miners are coming to grips with projects that are no longer viable. Some companies are even abandoning investments, leaving deposits worth billions of dollars in the ground to languish as so-called “stranded assets.” While environmentalists applaud, fund managers, banks and regulators worry that project financing could sour and collateral become worthless. read more

Countries Need to Invest $55 Trillion to Reach Emissions Target

By Rajesh Kumar Singh 16 September 2020, 15:39 BST: Updated on 17 September 2020, 07:17 BST

Global economies will need to invest as much as $55 trillion through the middle of the century to meet an emissions goal and contain warming of the planet, according to a report by a group of executives from energy-intensive companies including ArcelorMittal SA, BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Reaching net-zero carbon emissions target by 2050 will require large-scale electrification of industries, buildings and transport, as well as the use of hydrogen and biofuels in areas that can’t be electrified, according to the Energy Transitions Commission. Using less energy to produce more and recycling material will aid the efforts. Building renewable power plants will take up a bulk of the estimated investment. read more

Big Oil’s green makeover

Every so often, corporations confront questions of life or death.

IBM did it in the 1990s, when its hulking mainframe computers faced the challenge of next generation PCs. A new chief executive successfully shifted IBM to services and software. Netflix did it — three times. It first played the role of disrupter, offering movie DVDs by mail and then mastering the business of online streaming. Then it changed again, generating its own content.

Now, BP, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, is aiming to ride the waves of disruption instead of being crushed under them. read more

Extinction Rebellion protest outside London HQ of oil giant Shell

last updated: 28/08/2020

At least one protester was arrested after demonstrators representing climate advocacy group, Extinction Rebellion, gathered outside Shell Centre, the London headquarters of the major oil firm, and spray-painted the word “LIES” on the building entrance.

The activist group had planned the demonstration for early Friday but minutes into the protest the graffiti painter, a young woman wearing a white painter’s uniform with the XR logo on the back, was arrested by police. read more

When BP’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, said he would cut the oil giant’s dividend in half earlier this month, he might have expected a backlash from the pension funds that rely on the £1.6bn quarterly payout. In the event, it caused little more than a ripple of interest. Nor was much attention paid to BP’s record $17.7bn (£13.5bn) loss, incurred over just three months and which compared with a profit of $1.8bn in the same period a year earlier.

Instead, the headlines were dominated by one of the most dramatic strategy shifts ever announced by a FTSE 100 company. BP, Looney said, would become a “very different energy company” as it increased tenfold its investment in low-carbon energy, while reducing oil and gas output by a billion barrels a day. much of the legacy oil business will be sold in the next five years and replaced by renewable energy generation. read more

In a surprising turn of events, Shell’s board of executives has officially endorsed a SumOfUs-backed resolution committing the company to take action against climate change.

Still, Shell is lobbying UN representatives to block any kind of real climate solutions in the run-up to the UN climate talks in Paris this year.

We can’t let Shell’s stated commitment to fight climate change be mere greenwashing. If Shell’s executives are really serious about tackling climate change, then they have to stop meddling with the climate talks. And with Shell responding to our pressure for the first time, we’re in a real position to force them to act. read more

Europe’s Big Oil Companies Are Turning Electric

Under pressure from governments and investors, industry leaders like BP and Shell are accelerating their production of cleaner energy.

By Stanley Reed: Aug. 17, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ET

This may turn out to be the year that oil giants, especially in Europe, started looking more like electric companies.

Late last month, Royal Dutch Shell won a deal to build a vast wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands. Earlier in the year, France’s Total, which owns a battery maker, agreed to make several large investments in solar power in Spain and a wind farm off Scotland. Total also bought an electric and natural gas utility in Spain and is joining Shell and BP in expanding its electric vehicle charging business. read more

Shell looks to inflate case for generating power offshore

Emily Gosden, Energy Editor: Saturday, August 15, 2020. The Times

Royal Dutch Shell hopes to boost the profits it makes from offshore wind farms by using surplus electricity to produce hydrogen and to charge batteries at sea.

The oil company claims that using such technologies to store energy, as well as installing floating solar panels next to the turbines, should enable it to offer “a continuous power supply”, even when the wind isn’t blowing. read more

Exclusive: BP poised to sell ‘stranded assets’ even if oil prices rally

By Ron Bousso and Dmitry Zhdannikov: AUGUST 7, 2020

…There will be no way back for the British energy company once it has offloaded its so-called stranded oil and gas assets.

LONDON (Reuters) – BP is preparing to sell a large chunk of its oil and gas assets even if crude prices bounce back from the COVID-19 crash because it wants to invest more in renewable energy, three sources familiar with BP’s thinking said. read more

Bloomberg: Shell Says U.K. Can Bring Forward Gasoline Car Sale Ban to 2030

By Rakteem Katakey: 17 July 2020, 14:49 BST

• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set a 2035 deadline
• ‘Right policy and incentives’ could push it earlier: Lynch

Royal Dutch Shell Plc expects the U.K. can end the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles in just a decade, as the nation attempts to eliminate emissions by the middle of the century.

The ban can be brought forward to 2030 with “the right policy and incentives,” Sinead Lynch, the head of oil giant Shell’s operations in Britain said on LinkedIn. That’s five years earlier than the deadline set by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in February, and also beats the 2032 date that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said may be possible to achieve. read more

Global recovery unlikely to be v-shaped, says Shell chief

LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) – The global economy will not achieve a v-shaped recovery after the coronavirus epidemic, which will curtail oil and gas demand for years, Royal Dutch Shell’s chief executive said.

Ben van Beurden told an online interview with IHS Markit Chairman Dan Yergin that it was too early to know if demand for oil had peaked.

“Energy demand, and certainty mobility demand, will be lower even when this crisis is more or less behind us. Will it mean that it will never recover? It is probably too early to say, but it will have a permanent knock for years,” he said. read more

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Discusses Getting to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050; the Importance of Being “In Step” with Society; the “Knock” on Future Demand and on Maintaining “Financial Resilience” in a Crisis

Ben van Beurden speaks with IHS Markit Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin for the latest CERAWeek Conversations – available at www.ceraweek.com/conversations

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden talks about the company’s pending announcement on an up to $22 billion asset write down; the historic decision to cut what had been the world’s largest dividend for the first time since World War II; getting to net-zero emissions in 2050 and the future makeup of the company in latest edition of CERAWeek Conversations. read more

English translation of an article published today by the FD.

“I don’t want to survive this pandemic with a company that is no longer capable of anything”

Bert van Dijk

The corona crisis is forcing Shell to restructure the company. At the same time, CEO Ben van Beurden must chart the course for a low-carbon future. What choices does he make and why can’t things go a bit faster? “We cannot organize ourselves anti-economically. We don’t have that mandate.”

Ceo Ben van Beurden leads Shell from home during the corona crisis. ‘The good thing about this period is that you can help with homework.’ Photo: David van Dam for FD

In brief

• Shell CEO Ben van Beurden has to guide the oil and gas multinational through various storms.
• In a long conversation with the FD, he explains why he couldn’t help but decrease the dividend.
• He also outlines the dilemma of developing new revenue models, while the old revenue model cannot be immediately discarded.

Last week, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden reduced the value of Shell’s assets by nearly $ 20 billion last week. The massive write-off is necessary because the corona pandemic has hit the global demand for oil and gas heavily and uncertainty about the future has increased. read more

London (CNN Business)Royal Dutch Shell is writing down the value of its assets by as much as $22 billion as lower oil prices push the Anglo-Dutch company to accelerate a shift away from fossil fuels.

Shell (RDSA) slashed its outlook for energy prices Tuesday, saying in a statement that it expects Brent crude to cost $40 per barrel in 2021 and $50 per barrel in 2022. Prices are forecast to rise to $60 per barrel in 2023.

The company said the changes to its price forecast reflect the economic trauma caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has plunged countries around the world into recession and sharply reduced demand for energy. read more

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday it would write off assets worth up to $22 billion after the coronavirus crisis knocked oil and gas demand and weakened the energy price outlook.

The Anglo-Dutch company has already been preparing a major overhaul after CEO Ben van Beurden laid out plans in April to reduce Shell’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Global travel restrictions to prevent the virus spreading affected more than 4 billion people at one point, taking cars off the roads and grounding planes, driving down fuel demand. read more