“the oil kings are scaling back”

EIs this a new manifestation of the spirit of Trump that seems to float above Europe? We know that the future American president is a great supporter of the oil industry and an ardent critic of renewable energies, in particular offshore wind power. European oil companies increasingly seem to be following suit. On Monday, December 9, the British major BP announced that it was going to put its wind power activities into a joint company with the Japanese company Jera, Japan’s leading producer of thermal electricity.

Thanks to this operation, BP will be able to halve its investment. An orderly withdrawal for the company which had promised to be a giant in the field thanks to its country’s commitment to wind power in the North Sea, supposed to become, within ten years, the leading source of electricity production in the country.

The Dutch Shell also proclaimed, in 2019, that it would become the world number one in electricity within twenty years. There is no longer any question of it today. On Wednesday, December 4, he announced that he would no longer launch major projects in this area. After investing more than 11 billion euros in renewable energies, it is now folding its sail. The same goes for the Norwegian Equinor, which now prefers to take a stake in the Danish specialist Orsted. Symbol of the trouble in which offshore wind power is stuck, Denmark’s last call for tenders for a giant field, closed on Thursday December 5, did not receive any proposals.

Cost of raw materials

The first reason for this spectacular disaffection is due to the current situation, which sees construction prices soaring with the cost of raw materials, when the price of electricity is plunging and no longer makes very heavy investments profitable. Especially since the delays in constructing and processing files complicate operations. As vigorously reminded on Tuesday, December 10, the CEOs of EDF and TotalEnergies, who are nevertheless among the rare ones not to revise their ambitions downwards. In addition, the networks, still poorly calibrated, struggle to absorb this intermittent production.

The second reason is deeper. The oil companies recognize that the profession of electrician is very different from theirs and so are its prospects for profitability. As a result, shareholders, who seek dividends and share buybacks, do not vote for this transition. While those looking for it criticize the timidity of the majors and are reluctant to invest in them. Yet decarbonizing the world will be much more difficult to achieve without the power and money of the oil kings.