France’s Total has acquired the largest renewable energy portfolio among European oil supermajors since Big Oil started announcing last year net-zero targets and pledging significantly increased investments in renewables, Bloomberg data showed on Monday.
According to estimates of recent renewables deals compiled by Bloomberg, Total has the lead over BP and Shell in new renewable capacity acquisitions, even though it was the last of the three to announce net-zero targets last year.
Since announcing its new strategy and net-zero goals in September, Total has bought as much as 8.8 gigawatts (GW) of renewable electricity capacity, either operational or in construction or development phases, according to Bloomberg’s data.
Just last week, Total said it would pay US$2.5 billion to buy 20 percent in India’s Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL), the largest solar developer in the world with 14.6 GW of operating, under-construction, and awarded renewable power projects.
Total is betting on profitably growing its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewable businesses as part of its new strategy and net-zero agenda.
Total’s chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné told French newspaper Le Parisien in September that the firm aims to be among the world’s top five producers of renewable energy. The company’s operations mix today is 55 percent oil, 40 percent gas, and less than 5 percent electricity from renewables, Pouyanné said, noting that in 2050, Total’s operations would be divided into 20 percent oil, 40 percent gas, and 40 percent renewable energy.
BP has also made a billion-dollar deal in renewables since announcing its net-zero goal in February 2020 and following that up with a strategy in August to reinvent itself as an integrated energy company from an international oil company. Last September, BP said it was making its first move into the offshore wind market with a strategic partnership in U.S. offshore wind assets with Equinor in a deal worth US$1.1 billion.
Shell is so far the only one of the three that hasn’t made a billion-dollar-deal in renewables since announcing its net-zero goals last April, according to Bloomberg data.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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