TOTAL DIVERTS OIL CASH INTO NEW ENERGIES [GAS IN TRANSITION]

 

 

Next month’s rebrand underlines TotalEnergies’ growth in sustainable energy, funded by its steady stream of low-cost, low-carbon oil and gas. [Gas in Transition, Volume 1, Issue 1]

 

Following next month’s formal shareholder vote, France’s Total will become TotalEnergies. It is on the surface following a trend: other companies have similarly rechristened themselves, even though petroleum production remains their sole activity. And it stands in contrast to the other French giant Engie, whose name suggests NG even as it backs away from much of its natural gas business, selling its LNG business to Total and upstream to Neptune Energy.

But the electricity firm EDF and its subsidiaries also represent the state’s LNG and gas trading interests. Total has already gone some way down the green energy route, one that began with the disposal of its coal and tar sands businesses.

But crucially it has retained the core business on which it relies for revenues and dividends: crude oil and gas production and the refining and marketing segments. Petrochemicals too will continue to be needed while society moves towards a net-zero carbon future.

In a February presentation to analysts when it announce…