Major oil companies are poised to do a record number of clean-energy deals this year, with Royal Dutch Shell making the largest moves, Bloomberg reports.
The data compiled by Bloomberg underscores the quickening pace of the transition to low-carbon energy among the world’s largest fossil fuel producers, and the scale of the trans-Atlantic divide. European companies have closed seven times as many deals with renewable-electricity and storage companies since 2010 as their U.S. counterparts in the same time span.
“Shareholder pressure, evolving new technologies and rapidly changing consumer preferences have forced oil and gas companies to re-evaluate their long-term strategies and explore new business streams,” BloombergNEF analyst David Doherty says in a report published this morning.
Oil companies have done about 70 deals in sectors including solar, wind and biofuels so far this year, already close to surpassing the total for all of 2018, according to the report.
Chevron has become the most active investor in carbon capture, even as the development in technology has slowed in recent years compared to renewables, said Doherty.
ExxonMobil has also recently begun investing in carbon capture technology, and Aramco has mirrored the approach of BP and Chevron, acquiring stakes in select companies that reflect its current operations, with two investments in the past two years. Read the full story.
