Shell's U.S. solar business, S**ion, has sold about a quarter of its assets**, according to industry sources, and the oil giant is accelerating the pace of reducing its ownership of renewable energy projects under new CEO Wael Savan. For a time, Shell's argument of declining renewable energy was very loud.
In the field of oil and gas, the business layout of giants has always been regarded as the "weather vane" of the market, but Shell's "reversal of the wind direction" this time does not have much reference significance in the industry.
01.After years of losses, Shell moved the knife
Shell** is part of the assets of the previously developed solar power and storage business, which is up to 106 GW, according to S**Ion's official report, Shell acquired S**Ion in December 2021 as part of former CEO Van Burden's drive to develop a low-carbon energy market and reduce its carbon footprint, after which the company aggressively developed a capacity of 391 GW of solar and energy storage projects.
However, since the new CEO took office in January 2023, Wael Sawan has vowed to focus on the more profitable and stable oil and gas business, rather than owning power generation assets with lower returns. In addition to this, Shell has also strengthened its electricity retail business in the UK and Germany, including exiting some floating offshore wind projects and reducing its hydrogen business.
Just a few years ago, however, Shell had a different attitude.
On the basis of the "halving of carbon footprint by 2050" proposed in 2017, Shell announced an upgraded "net zero emissions by 2050" target in 2020, and in an interview with ** in March 2021, Shell said that "it will reduce oil production by 1%-2% per year." ”
The dismal performance poured cold water on Shell. After a net profit of $40 billion in 2022, Shell's performance fell back to $19 billion again in 2023. Shell's Renewable Energy & Energy Solutions division lost $67 million for the third consecutive year, according to data for the third quarter in 2023: it lost 15$1.4 billion, with a loss of 10$5.9 billion.
Change is the greatest constant.
Dynamically adjusting the business structure and pursuing profit maximization are still the primary considerations for the company's business decisions. In addition to the one-sided doubts and denials, there are also voices pointing out that Shell has not significantly increased its investment in renewable energy business after obtaining the best returns in history, which is a timely optimization of its business layout.
02.The wind direction is still the same, and the investment is more than two percent year-on-year
Low-carbon renewable energy is key to the global energy transition".
The latest to come out"2023 Oil and Gas Industry Development Report".shows that in 2023, global clean energy investment will exceed 17 trillion US dollars, an increase of more than 20% from 2022. The international oil and gas giants continue to invest in the renewable energy business.
In 2023, PetroChina will continue to accelerate the green transformation of the oil and gas industry, and through the development of new energy industries such as wind, solar, electricity, geothermal, hydrogen energy and CCUS, it will realize the transformation of oilfields into "green power fields", oilfields into "geothermal fields", oilfields into "green hydrogen fields" and oilfields into "carbon storage fields", such as Daqing Oilfield, which will complete wind and solar power generation projects in 2023430,000 kilowatts, a 16-fold increase compared to 2022.
In 2023, Total will invest a total of $16 billion to $18 billion in low-carbon energy, and by 2030, Total plans to invest between $14 billion and $18 billion per year, of which one-third will be for low-carbon energy, about 30% for the development of new oil and gas projects, and the rest for maintaining a hydrocarbon portfolio.
At the beginning of this year, Spanish oil giant Repsol spent 5600 million euros to acquire Spain's Asterion renewable energy company, and in December last year, BP spent 3$200 million acquisition of British solar energy company Lightsource BP 5003% equity. Hotspot Engine Program The investment trend in renewable energy remains unchanged. However, it is worth noting that the asset valuation and profits of renewable energy projects are causing new thinking in the industry.