Shell Plans USD 1 Billion of New Energies Investment a Year

Oil and gas giant Shell plans on increasing investments in its newly-established New Energies division to up to USD 1 billion a year by the end of the decade, according to our sister site Offshore Energy Today.

When it announced setting up the new unit last year, Shell said its new energies business was expected to become a significant growth priority, however, beyond the year 2020, with investments remaining relatively low for some time, focused on current positions and identifying potential opportunities.

As for offshore wind specifically, Shell is eyeing building its business in the sector, with the UK and other European countries in the spotlight, according to reports from February.

During the CERAWeek conference in Houston, held at the beginning of March, Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden said the company wants to be part of the energy transition in the countries it is active in, adding that Shell – as part of a consortium – won the Borssele III & IV offshore wind tender in the Netherlands.

However, Van Beurden also pointed out that energy transition will take as much as decades and will be different from country to country. Still, the transition taking decades is not the biggest challenge. “The most difficult challenge to me is to have a meaningful discussion with the public on energy transition. The discussion is not rational, it is emotional. That can be complicated and at times frustrating. You want to be a force for good but that’s sometimes hard to show,” Offshore Energy Today quoted Shell’s CEO as saying.

Meanwhile, the circle of oil and gas giants entering renewable energy market is growing, with Eni recently announcing renewable energy-focused partnerships with GE and Statoil as one of its latest clean-energy moves.

The Italian oil and gas major thus joined other companies that were (or still are) primarily doing business in the fossil fuel markets but are getting increasingly involved in renewable energy, such as Shell, Statoil and DONG Energy, with the latter expecting to divest its activities within exploration and production of oil and gas before the end of this year.