Oil, Gas Majors to Boost Renewable Spend

Oil, Gas Majors to Boost Renewable Spend
Oil and gas majors will continue to strengthen investment into renewable energy and low carbon technology through 2018.

Oil and gas majors will continue to strengthen investment into renewable energy and low carbon technology through 2018, although capital allocated in this area will still be significantly below volumes committed to conventional business activity.

That is the view of oil and gas analysts at BMI Research, who said they expect to see social, investor, and regulatory pressure to lower emissions, and reduce environmental footprints, continue to intensify.

“Capital investment by oil and gas companies into the renewable and green tech space remains relatively small when compared to capital expenditure,” the analysts said in a brief research note sent to Rigzone.

“However, as the cost of renewable technology continues to drop, technological innovation persists and green policy momentum continues, oil and gas companies will increasingly look to allocate capital towards gaining market share in renewable energy and low carbon technologies. This will manifest both through mergers and acquisitions, but also through in-house research and development,” the analysts added.

BMI highlighted several notable ‘green’ acquisitions by oil and gas majors through the latter part of 2017, including Total’s purchase of an indirect interest of 23 percent in French renewable energy company EREN RE in September, Statoil’s 40 percent share acquisition in the construction-ready Apodi solar asset in Brazil in October, and BP’s decision to buy a 43 percent stake in Europe’s largest solar developer Lightsource in December.



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