Carol Ryan of The Wall Street Journal reports that European energy giants Shell and BP are sticking to their core business as clean-energy investments make slow progress. Ryan writes:
Biofuels are the latest green-energy investment to disappoint. That leaves the hopes of Europe’s oil and gas giants pinned on an old standby of the energy transition: liquefied natural gas.
Shell and BP had high expectations of biofuels such as renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, pouring billions of dollars into the market. But things have hit a rough patch.
Last week, Shell took a $780 million impairment after pausing construction on a Dutch plant that was meant to become one of Europe’s biggest biofuel facilities. BP abandoned plans for two out of five potential biofuel refineries, although it also bought out its joint-venture partner in Brazil-based BP Bunge Bioenergia in June. […]
For now, LNG is the obvious way to keep profits flowing to shareholders while also making progress on emissions. But piling in may store up pain for the future.
Read more here.
