It’s been an astonishing three months for the oil & gas industry — the oil price turned negative for the first time; Europe’s four leading producers announced net-zero strategies (BP, Shell, Total and Eni); oil companies worldwide reduced their hydrocarbons spending while keeping energy-transition plans on track; and the bosses of Shell and BP openly questioned whether oil demand will ever return to pre-Covid levels.
On top of this, Shell, Total and Equinor have vowed to spend $685m on the world’s first large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) network; gas distribution companies in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands have announced plans for zero-carbon gas grids; and there have been numerous calls around the world — including from UN secretary-general António Guterres and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen — to exclude fossil fuels from post-coronavirus economic stimulus packages.
