By Barney Smith Just when it seemed safe to leave Big Oil to its own devices for a bit, Shell is involved in several actions which are sufficiently newsworthy that they cannot be ignored. On Thursday 30 July the company released figures for Q2 2021, which were the best figures for any quarter since 2018 [...]
By Barney Smith The Prime Minister’s ten-point blue-print for a “Green Industrial Revolution”, released in November 2020, included the following extract (from Point 1), which also incidentally contains the firmest commitment in the whole plan viz:- “And by 2030, we aim to produce 40GW of offshore wind, including 1GW of innovative floating offshore wind in [...]
By Barney Smith In the follow-up to the AGM, ExxonMobil finally had to concede not two, but three seats on the Board to the activist investor Engine No 1 which wanted the company to take more account of the energy transition, of climate change and its inevitable impact on the Oil and Gas industry. ExxonMobil [...]
By Barney Smith According to the latest Review, which, unusually, came out this year in early July, 2020 was the most aberrant year ever, with primary energy use falling by 4.5 per cent and carbon emissions falling by more than 6 per cent, both being the fastest rate of decline since WWII. The US, India [...]
By Barney Smith If, and it is a big “If”, the whole world suddenly wholeheartedly embraced electric cars, what would be the consequences? Leaving aside the problems arising from the substantial rising demand for more electricity from renewable sources for charging the cars and the problems caused by the world’s over-reliance on copper and cobalt [...]
.By Barney Smith On 18 November 2020, the Prime Minister produced his ten-point plan for the environment: a key point was on emissions and electric cars (EVs), including the eye-catching announcement “From 2030 we will end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans”. An announcement is one thing, but follow-up is another. [...]
By Barney Smith Greenbarrel shows its’ versatility by moving from the monsters of the oil world one week to a minnow the next. AIM-listed Zephyr Energy (whose worth is just under £47million @ the price of £3.84 on 9 June) announced on 7 June that it intends to achieve carbon-neutrality across its operational footprint by [...]
By Barney Smith In the event it was a very bad week for Big Oil, especially for Exxon Mobil and Chevron who faced a shareholder revolt on the same day. Exxon Mobil discovered that in spite of their corporate opposition, two nominees of activist Hedge Fund Engine No 1 were voted onto the Board because [...]
By Barney Smith Interestingly, Exxon Mobil is not the only oil major to have an AGM this week. (See Greenbarrel of 20 May) Total, the French major, also has its AGM this week, on Friday 28 May, to be precise. Total, like Shell and BP, its larger European competitors, is pledged to be carbon neutral [...]
By Barney Smith Exxon Mobil (American) is arguably the largest publicly traded Western international Oil and Gas company. It is also perhaps equally well known for being resistant to any dramatic policy movement because of a perceived change in the earth’s climate. But some see this year’s AGM, on 26 May, as an opportunity to [...]