OPINION: Oil and gas majors are awash with cash after a year of soaring prices, so could 2023 be the year when they rediscover an appetite for lavish capital expenditure? If so, will some of them seize the moment to build dominant positions in emerging renewable energies?

As a long cycle of capital discipline and debt leveraging draws to an end, consultancy Wood Mackenzie calculates that 54 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies will generate $400 billion in surplus cash flow, even after paying dividends.