Royal Dutch Shell going electric?

In a press release last week, world giant Shell announced that oil production had peaked in 2019, expecting an annual decline of 1% to 2% per year. Five years ago, Shell anticipated peak oil demand by 2020. Experts had already warned that EVs would pose a threat to oil companies.

Last September, Shell followed BP in pledging to meet net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Yet, it seems that Shell’s plan which relies heavily on biofuels and liquefied natural gas is not reaching its goal of reducing emissions fast enough.

In its release, Shell announced it was working on carbon-capture systems and carbon offsets, such as forestation projects adding that it also aimed to sell carbon-capture services to other companies. 

Carbon-capture seems to be part of the solution. Yet, costs have not helped it from being used on a commercial scale. Carbon offsets, another popular solution to achieve net-zero emissions, have also been criticized since it allows the continued use of fossil fuels.

Consequently, Shell has also began to diversify into EV charging adding charging stations at its gas stations. In 2019, the oil giant bought the Greenlots charging network and last month, it announced that it would buy Ubitricity, a European charging network expert in streetside charging.