Shell Could Slow the Rate of its Emissions Cuts

UK-based supermajor Shell has been updating its strategy on climate targets and could announce a slower pace of its emissions reductions later this week, anonymous sources with knowledge of the discussions have told Bloomberg.

Shell is set to announce an update to its energy transition strategy on Thursday, March 14. The oil and gas major has been considering slowing the pace of carbon emission reductions for some time, as part of an update to its strategy in which a team has been tasked to analyze options and present them to the top management, Bloomberg’s sources said.   

A spokesperson for the company told Bloomberg that Shell would publish on Thursday its Energy Transition Strategy report, which “will contain details of our plans to become a net zero emissions energy business by 2050.”

Shell said back in 2021 that its oil production peaked in 2019 and is set for a continual decline over the next three decades as it looks toward the renewables side of the business.  

Related: Europe’s Secret Weapon In Its Energy War With Russia 

However, the post-Covid rebound in oil and gas demand and the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the subsequent major dislocation of energy trade has clearly shown “the fragility of the energy system when we starve it of the supply that is required,” said CEO Wael Sawan, who took over from Ben van Beurden in early 2023.

In the summer of 2023, Shell unveiled its new strategy to continue investing in oil and gas production and selectively pour capital into renewable energy solutions, angering climate activists and some institutional investors.

At Shell’s Capital Markets Day 2023 in June, Sawan said,

“We are investing to provide the secure energy customers need today and for a long time to come, while transforming Shell to win in a low-carbon future. Performance, discipline, and simplification will be our guiding principles as we allocate capital to enhance shareholder distributions, while enabling the energy transition.”

Sawan has also said that reducing global oil and gas production would be “dangerous and irresponsible” as the world still desperately needs those hydrocarbons.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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