Majors mull power puzzle
Financial and regulatory challenges are curbing the ambitions of major oil companies' ambitions to invest in the electricity supply sector
Industry and political posturing over the direction and speed of the global energy transition, which many hope will limit climate change and encourage carbon-neutral energy consumption, is pitting oil and gas firms against the electricity supply industry. Each sector seems to be encroaching on the other: some major oil companies are taking steps to enter the power sector, while utilities are taking aim at the transport fuels business. But underlying the rhetoric is the reality that these steps are so far largely marginal; enormous technical, and commercial challenges face each sector as companies migrate from their traditional sectors. For the oil industry, the challenges are further complic
Also in this section
1 August 2025
A number of companies have filed arbitration claims against Gazprom over non-deliveries of contracted gas or other matters—and won. The next step is to collect the award; this is no easy task but it can be done thanks to an international legal framework under the New York Convention.
1 August 2025
Europe’s refining sector is desperately trying to adapt to a shifting global energy landscape and nowhere is this more apparent than in its largest economy
1 August 2025
The Middle East natural gas playbook is being rewritten. The fuel source offers the region a pathway to a cleaner, sustainable and affordable means of local power, to fasttrack economic development and as a lucrative opportunity to better monetise its energy resources.
31 July 2025
TotalEnergies is an outlier among other majors for remaining committed to low-carbon investments while continuing to replenish and expand its ample oil and gas portfolio, with an appetite for high risk/high return projects.
