So far, oil and gas companies have largely sat on the sidelines of the energy transition. Could they take on a bigger role? That, at least, is what the International Energy Agency hopes.
In its latest research, the IEA points out that only 1 per cent of the investments that go into the energy transition come from the oil and gas industry. Clean energy accounted for just 2.5 per cent of their overall investments in 2022. The vast majority still go into oil and gas. And that is a shame, thinks the agency, given that oil and gas production needs to fall sharply to meet net zero scenarios.
In this context, European integrated oil and gas companies are ahead of the pack. They currently put 15 per cent of their capital expenditure into low carbon technologies, up from only 3 per cent in 2019. That should rise to 25 per cent by 2030, according to Bernstein analysis. That leaves US peers and national oil companies far behind.