Shell To Invest $15bn On Energy Transition

LAGOS – Shell plc (Shell) plans to invest about $10-15 billion between 2023 and the end of 2025 in low-carbon energy solutions, in line with its drive to net zero.

This is contained in its published first energy transition update since the launch of its Powering Progress strategy in 2021.

The Anglo-Dutch energy company said it had already invested $5.6 billion on low-carbon solutions, more than 23% of our total capital spending in 2023.

“These investments include electric vehicle charging, biofuels, renewable power, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. Our investments in new technologies are helping to reduce emissions for Shell and our customers.

“We aim to help scale new technologies to make them an affordable choice for our customers and are focusing our advocacy on key areas which we believe are critical to the energy transition: policies that support national net-zero ambitions including carbon pricing, supplying the secure energy the world needs, driving changes in demand and growing low-carbon solutions.”

On the Energy Transition Strategy, Shell recalled that at its Capital Markets Day in June 2023, it outlined how our strategy delivers more value with less emissions, emphasising the “more value” part.

“In this energy transition update, we are focusing on how the same strategy delivers “less emissions,” Shell said in a statement posted on its website.

The statement reads further: “Our target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 across all our operations and energy products is transforming our business. We believe this target supports the more ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

“Shell’s strategy supports a balanced and orderly transition away from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy solutions to maintain secure and affordable energy supplies.”

Shell’s Chief Executive Officer, Wael Sawan, was quoted as saying: “Energy has made an incredible contribution to human development, allowing many people around the world to live more prosperous lives. Today, the world must meet growing demand for energy while tackling the urgent challenge of climate change.

“I am encouraged by the rapid progress in the energy transition in recent years in many countries and technologies, which reinforces my deep conviction in the direction of our strategy.

“Shell has a very important role to play in providing the energy the world needs today, and in helping to build the low-carbon energy system of the future. Our focus on performance, discipline and simplification is driving clear choices about where we can have the greatest impact through the energy transition and create the most value for our investors and customers.

“We believe this focus makes it more, not less, likely that we will achieve our climate targets. By providing the different kinds of energy the world needs, we believe we are the investment case and the partner of choice through the energy transition,” said Sawan.

These investments include electric vehicle charging, biofuels, renewable power, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. Our investments in new technologies are helping to reduce emissions for Shell and our customers.

Shell also informed that its energy transition plans “cover all our businesses. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a critical fuel in the energy transition, and we are growing our world-leading LNG business with lower carbon intensity.

“We are cutting emissions from oil and gas production while keeping oil production stable, and growing sales of low-carbon energy solutions while gradually reducing sales of oil products such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel.

As one of the world’s largest energy traders, we can connect the supply of low-carbon energy to demand, as we have done for many years with oil and gas.

We have made good progress against our climate targets:

By the end of 2023, we had achieved more than 60% of our target to halve emissions from our operations by 2030, compared with 2016. This goes above and beyond the targets set by signatories to the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter agreed at COP28.

We continue to be an industry leader in reducing methane emissions. We were one of the first companies to set a target to achieve near-zero methane emissions by 2030. In 2023, we achieved 0.05% methane emissions intensity – significantly below our target of 0.2%. And in 2023 we also contributed to the World Bank’s Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Fund – further supporting industry-wide action to drive down methane emissions and flaring.

In 2023, we achieved our target to reduce the net carbon intensity of the energy products we sell, with a 6.3% reduction compared with 2016 – the third consecutive year we hit our target.

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