• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit August 15, 2022
Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature August 15, 2022
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

Shell Has ‘No Choice’ About Investing in New Fossil Projects, CEO Claims

October 15, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes

Catherine Hammond/wikimedia commons

Catherine Hammond/wikimedia commons

1
SHARES
 

Colossal fossil Royal Dutch Shell has “no choice” but to invest in new, long-lasting fossil projects, a defiant CEO Ben van Beurden told Reuters this week, in an interview in which he decried the “demonization” of oil and gas and “unjustified” worries that the company’s business model is unsustainable.

“Despite what a lot of activists say, it is entirely legitimate to invest in oil and gas because the world demands it,” van Beurden declared. “We can sustain an upstream (oil and gas) portfolio all the way into the 2030s if there is an economic rationale for doing that and a societal rationale for doing that,” he added. And “fortunately enough, we have more of those than we have money to spend on them.”

Reuters says Shell, which supplies about 3% of the world’s energy, “has become more selective in its investments as the outlook for oil prices and demand remains unclear. It targets new projects that can be profitable at oil prices of US$20 to $30 a barrel and which emit relatively low greenhouse emissions.”

In 2017, the company laid out a plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions intensity in half by mid-century. But intensity is a measure of greenhouse gas emissions per unit of fossil energy a company produces. And Reuters cites an investor presentation in June that listed more than 35 new oil and gas projects that Shell plans to initiate by 2025.

Between 2017 and 2018, the news agency adds, the company’s emissions rose 2.5%.

But that’s not where van Beurden sees the problem. “One of the bigger risks is not so much that we will become dinosaurs because we are still investing in oil and gas when there is no need for it anymore,” he said. “A bigger risk is prematurely turning your back on oil and gas.”

While oil and gas “account for the entirety of Shell’s free cash flow today, it foresees a gradual diversification over the next two decades,” Reuters states. “Oil and gas are each still expected to provide a third of free cash flow, however, with the rest coming from power and chemicals.” Moreover, the gas processing plants, deepwater exploration platforms, and chemical plants at the heart of the company’s plans “take billions of dollars to develop and operate for decades.”

In recent years, Shell has had some success spinning itself as an environmentally friendly fossil. But while it claims a long-term goal of becoming the world’s biggest electricity company, analysis earlier this year showed that it only devotes 5% of its investment to new energy sources.

In the Reuters interview, van Beurden acknowledged that some investors might “prematurely” abandon his company, adding that “societal risk” is already driving down the value of Shell stock. “I am afraid of that, to be honest,” he said. “But I don’t think they will flee for the justified concern of stranded assets…(It is) the continued pressure on our sector, in some cases to the point of demonization, that scares asset managers.”

While “it is not at a scale that the alarm bells are ringing,” he added, “it is an unhealthy trend.”



in Climate Action / "Blockadia", Community Climate Finance, Ending Emissions, Oil & Gas

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Suncor Energy Plant_Max and Dee Bernt:Flickr
Ending Emissions

Fossils Would ‘Bust the Paris Agreement’ with Inadequate Decarbonization Plans

August 18, 2022
2
Ken Hodge/Flickr
Oil & Gas

No Path for Canadian LNG Exports to Europe, IISD Analysis Concludes

August 18, 2022
3
power pylons sunrise grid
Clean Electricity Grid

Midwestern U.S. Grid Investment Supports Massive Increase in Renewables

August 18, 2022
3

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
1.1k
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coal_Carbon_Capture_Technology_In_Use.png

Carbon Capture a ‘Dangerous Distraction’, 500 Organizations Warn Canada, U.S.

July 23, 2021
617
TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
1.1k
Vinaykumar8687/WikimediaCommons

Solar On Track for ‘Staggering’ 30% Growth This Year

August 15, 2022
315
Early stages of construction on the Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor in France

Failing French Nuclear Plants Drive Up Electricity Costs as Heat Waves Cut Production

August 14, 2022
753
rawpixel

Common Medications Foil Body’s Ability to Cope with Hot Weather

August 15, 2022
205

Recent Posts

Suncor Energy Plant_Max and Dee Bernt:Flickr

Fossils Would ‘Bust the Paris Agreement’ with Inadequate Decarbonization Plans

August 18, 2022
2
Ken Hodge/Flickr

No Path for Canadian LNG Exports to Europe, IISD Analysis Concludes

August 18, 2022
3
Steve Jurvetson/flickr

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 18, 2022
75
kris krüg/flickr

Guilbeault Considering Alternatives to Releasing Toxic Tailings into Athabasca River

August 18, 2022
2
Ford F-150 LIghtning

U.S. Utility Plans to Draw Power from Ford Electric Pickups

August 18, 2022
2
power pylons sunrise grid

Midwestern U.S. Grid Investment Supports Massive Increase in Renewables

August 18, 2022
3
Next Post
Sam Forson/Pexels

Saskatchewan Issues Proposal Call for 300 MW of New Wind Capacity

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}