Oil & Gas CEOs buck against energy transition
While renewables are making headway, Oil & Gas companies are speaking out in defense of traditional methods of power generation.
The chief executive of French energy giant TotalEnergies defended the firm’s greenhouse gas emissions strategy, saying the company remains committed to oil and gas despite repeated warnings that increasing fossil fuel production will only make matters worse.
Speaking at a recent OPEC conference, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said July 5 that the company had allocated nearly one-third of its capital expenditure to low-carbon technologies, with the remainder spent on oil and gas.
“We are in both pillars, and we will remain on both pillars [for a long time],” Pouyanne said.
“Today, our society requires oil and gas … Why we are together, it is 80% of fossil fuels. There is no way to think that overnight we can just eliminate all that and rely only on 10% of low-carbon energy. It will take decades to build a new system,” he added.
Shell’s CEO Wael Sawan said in the same week that it would be “irresponsible” and “dangerous” to cut oil and gas production at a time when the world economy is still dependent on fossil fuels.
In a statement released July 6, Sawan refused to rule out moving the company’s headquarters and stock market listing from Britain to the United States.
“The reality is, the energy system of today continues to desperately need oil and gas,” Sawan said. “And before we are able to let go of that, we need to make sure that we have developed the energy systems of the future — and we are not yet, collectively, moving at the pace (required for) that to happen.”
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