With the ‘lower-for-longer’ oil price mindset, firstly heard around 2015, which is a year after the oil price crashed in 2014, oil executives around the world including top executives had long since then thought that the shale energy won’t go away anytime soon and is a force to be reckoned with. This was followed by companies restructuring (or retrenchment) affecting oil and gas workers in the figures of around 400000 around the world. Waves after waves of companies filing Chapter 11 and acquisition spree had impacted hundreds of companies ranging from oilfield services to drilling contractor the likes of Baker & Hughes (acquired by GE Oil & Gas), Swissco Holdings, Perisai Drilling, Atwood Oceanics and many more.

This triggered inward reflections for most oil companies and with the lack thereof or with hardly any leadership from respective national governments, and to think of surviving in ultra low oil price for longer, this was demoralising and thus dented confidence in moving forward (current business model). This spurred major oil companies worldwide to transform their business model especially in view of competing alternative energy sources such as renewables.

Hence, it was ‘shocking’ still as of now to find that big oil companies were ‘transforming or re-branding’ into ‘energy’ companies. This include the likes of Shell, Total, Exxon Mobil, Statoil and others. If one were to look deeper, this shouldn’t be surprising as oil executives would have to re-examine their business model due to low oil price and if the low oil price is sustainable and be irrelevant in years to come especially with the ever strong green energy (zero emission) campaign or global warming political movements.

And rightly so, those same oil executives were setting up new business division looking after the renewable portion and to rebrand from oil companies to a broader energy companies. Certainly, there may be legitimate considerations regarding viability of renewable energy projects going forward and to take it in positive light, they represent new business opportunities at the same time and acting as hedge for low oil price. These projects include the likes of wind farms, fuel cells, CCS and solar farms.

Those same oil executives were also convinced that another hedge to low oil price was to ‘bet’ on downstream, and thus we saw many new refineries or petrochemical projects being launched worldwide. Downstream certainly benefit or profitable with cheaper feedstock (aka low oil price) and they transform those crude oils into higher value added products such as fuel, gasoline and other chemicals or petrochemicals such as plastics. In time of difficulty, the best survivor will always look out for new opportunities, and with the ‘carbon emission political movement’, this represent another business opportunity to go forward with new technology in capturing and storing carbons, aka CCS technology. This was perhaps best exemplified by Statoil, who had partnered with Shell and Total to integrate CCS technology into their two operating fields which are the Sleipner West and the Snohvit LNG. Currently, Statoil is in feasibility study to store CO2 offshore Norwegian Continental Shelf on behalf of Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

Most oil majors presently had set a dedicated investment fund targeting at acquiring innovative technology (mainly renewables) company that could produce alternative energy sources and also digital companies that could reduce carbon emission. Going forward, oil companies will be more efficient, more prudent, stronger, and broader encompassing a diverse source of energy

escveritasEnergyOil & GasThe FutureUncategorizeddigital,energy,equinor,oil,petroleum,renewables,statoilWith the 'lower-for-longer' oil price mindset, firstly heard around 2015, which is a year after the oil price crashed in 2014, oil executives around the world including top executives had long since then thought that the shale energy won't go away anytime soon and is a force to be...Your Industries Online