POWER April 2021 - 24

SUSTAINABILITY
Oil and Gas Majors Focus on
Renewable Energy, Hydrogen,
and Carbon Capture
Although you'd be hard-pressed to find an expert who believes oil and gas companies
will abandon exploration and production operations anytime soon, several oil
and gas majors are expanding their businesses into the renewable energy sector-
and some in a big way. Total has laid out plans that would have it outpace clean energy
leaders Iberdrola and Ørsted on renewable power capacity by 2030. Hydrogen
and carbon capture technologies are also likely to be part of growth strategies for
the industry going forward.
Aaron Larson
S
ustainability is a topic that many
company leaders
around
world are thinking about more and
more these days. POWER published an
article last month (see " The Hydropower
Industry's Sustainability Conundrum "
in the March 2021 issue and online at
powermag.com) outlining ways the hydropower
sector aims to improve new
and existing facilities through sustainability
initiatives, but it's not just power companies
that are focusing on the topic;
enterprises in nearly every industry are
prioritizing sustainability.
The oil and gas (O&G) sector has taken
a keen interest in the subject, as the shift
away from fossil fuels gains momentum
due to climate change concerns. Among
the big names in the industry, Europeanbased
companies, such as Total, BP, Royal
Dutch Shell, Equinor, Eni, and Repsol, are
leading the way by adding renewable resources
to their portfolios.
" This is a very Eurocentric story right
now, " said David Linden, head of Energy
Transition with Westwood Global Energy
Group, a UK-based energy market research
and intelligence firm that provides subscription-based
data services, bespoke reporting,
and commercial advice to clients around the
world. " You've got clear themes that European-based
businesses are thinking about decarbonization
and diversification, while Asian
and American oil and gas companies are less
focused on that. "
Sustainability Pathways
Linden explained that many O&G companies
have set net-zero carbon emissions
targets. " You can do many different
things to get to a net-zero business, " he
24
the
said. " And actually, that's sort of borne out
quite interestingly through a lot of these
different strategies. " For example, while
Total and Shell are both trying to reduce
the intensity of their emissions, the paths
they're taking differs markedly.
Total has indicated it intends to become
a world leader in renewables, in
line with its strategy to transition into an
increasingly broader energy company by
2030. Since 2016, Total has invested $8
billion in renewable power, increasing its
gross renewable capacity to about 7 GW.
Going forward, the company has set a
target of 35 GW of renewable capacity
by 2025, with many of the additions already
under construction or well along in
development. Furthermore, Total recently
announced an ambition to increase
its renewable capacity to about 100 GW
in 2030, which would place it ahead of
Iberdrola's existing targets and more
than three times ahead of Ørsted's announced
goals. Iberdrola and Ørsted are
global power companies that specifically
focus on green energy.
Meanwhile, Linden pointed out that
Shell hasn't actually set any specific renewable
energy investment targets. The
company still plans to invest in a mix of
solar, offshore wind, and onshore wind
projects, but it is more focused on working
with customers to accelerate the
transition to net-zero emissions. Shell
has developed a three-pillar strategy
designed to transform the company. Its
" Growth " pillar includes such things
as service stations, fuels for business
customers, power, hydrogen, biofuels,
charging for electric vehicles,
naturebased
solutions, and carbon capture and
storage (CCS).
www.powermag.com
1. Repsol is a stakeholder in the WindFloat
Atlantic floating wind farm, which consists of
three 8.4-MW MHI Vestas wind turbines-the
world's largest ever installed on floating platforms.
The project was a POWER Top Plant
award-winner in 2020. Courtesy: Repsol
Among the other big European O&G
companies, BP aims to develop 20 GW
of renewable capacity by 2025, and 50
GW by 2030. It's starting from an installed
base of about 3.3 GW at the end
of 2020. Eni, which had 0.27 GW of renewable
capacity at the end of the third
quarter 2020, is somewhat unique in the
granularity of its targets, having established
short-, medium-, and long-term
goals. Eni plans to have 3 GW of installed
renewable capacity in 2023 and 5 GW
in 2025. It's targeting 15 GW in 2030,
25 GW in 2035, and more than 55 GW
by 2050. Both Equinor and Repsol also
have renewable energy targets. Equinor
established a range of 4 GW to 6 GW
by 2026, and 12 GW to 16 GW by 2035.
Repsol (Figure 1) is aiming for 7.5 GW by
2025 and 15 GW by 2030.
" So, it's quite a diverging view as to
how you get from A to B, and depending
on what your overall theme is-where
you think you can differentiate yourself-
you're going to see different targets bePOWER
| April 2021
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POWER April 2021

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