PIt’s easy to leave the comfort of a good chair for the hardness of a folding seat, even if the first belongs to the past while the second represents the future. The great innovation specialist Clayton Christensen tirelessly explained that large companies (but this also applies to States) see the shift in change but still get out of the way because they underestimate its strength, prisoners that they are of their comfort. Will it be the same for oil companies?
Bernard Looney, the boss of BP, the British major, surprised everyone on February 7 by announcing, in the wake of spectacular results, his decision to slow down his exit from fossil fuels. The company was however the good pupil of the oil class. In 2020, newly appointed head of the company, Mr. Looney made a strong plea in favor of accelerating the transition, promising to reduce its oil and gas production by 40% by 2030.
Last week, he backpedaled by lowering his target to 25%, arguing that governments and the public are demanding a stronger energy system, given the current geopolitical mess. He was above all under pressure from his shareholders, who note that oil has never brought the company as much as in 2022: nearly 28 billion dollars (26.22 billion euros) in profits. They also see that renewable energy is much less profitable. So why leave this chair so soft?
Commitment intact
BP’s new renewables boss, Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, disputes this version and says, in an interview with FinancialTimesthat the firm’s commitment is intact and that the company still intends to spend nearly $30 billion in this sector by 2030, which would still make it the best student in its class.
The Ukrainian episode shows that a modification of a single parameter – here Russian gas – can plunge an entire continent into chaos
In 2022, it devoted 30% of its investments to renewable energies and transition, and it is aiming for 40% in 2025. The French TotalEnergies is hot on its heels with a forecast of 30% of investments in 2023. Both were not yet devoting only a few percent of their spending on this in 2018-2019.
Is the speed sufficient? No, answers the NGO ShareAction, which convinced around thirty major investors, representing 1,500 billion euros in assets, to sign a letter sent to five major European banks (BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank , Barclays) asking them to stop financing new oil and gas fields.
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