4:03 a.m. April 3, 2007
LONDON – The following are details of the main investments of the largest fully publicly-traded oil companies in the world, by market capitalisation, in wind power, solar, hydrogen, geothermal energy and biofuels.
Purchases of biofuels and the relatively small investments in new facilities needed to allow blending of biofuels are not included. These largely relate to government mandates requiring biofuels use.
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2006 capital expenditure budgets are included to facilitate comparison with investment in hydrocarbons.
Exxon Mobil Corp
The world's largest non-government-controlled oil company by market value sold its solar power business in the 1980s and now has no investments in renewable energy.
Exxon does not believe renewables are commercially viable on a significant scale without government incentives and opposes such incentives.
However, if technological breakthoughs made wind, solar or biofuels more competitive with oil and gas, Exxon said it might consider investing in them.
Exxon has committed $100 million over 10 years to the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University, which seeks to make lower carbon energy technologies including solar more economic.
Exxon executives privately accuse rivals like BP and Shell of exaggerating their commitment to renewable energy.
Total 2006 Capex: $19.9 billion
Royal Dutch Shell Plc
A spokeswoman for Shell said it had invested $1 billion in renewables, excluding biodiesel, and hydrogen activities in the past five years.
The Hague-based company has the largest wind power business in the sector, and the 17th largest in the world, according to Emerging Energy Research, and plans to expand substantially.
Shell said it has 350 MW of installed capacity with farms operating or planned in the U.S., the Netherlands and the UK.
The second-largest western oil company by market value sold its old solar business in 2006 and now has another, based on a different technology, which plans to start manufacturing a new generation of solar panels in 2008.
Shell has invested over $150 million in hydrogen energy research, development, and commercial applications since 1999.
Additionally, Shell has extensive investments in green transport fuels, aimed at developing “second-generation” biofuels – products produced from waste biomass, rather than food crops such as corn and rape seed.
In 2002, Shell bought a stake in Iogen, a Canadian company which plans to produce ethanol from waste biomass, for $29 million.
In 2005, Shell bought a minority stake in CHOREN Industries GmbH, which plans to produce biodiesel from biomass.
Shell is funding research into geothermal energy – the generation of electricity by injecting water into hot rocks deep under the ground to create steam that drives turbines.
Total since 1999: Around $1.25 billion
2006 Capital investment: $23.1 billion
BP Plc
The world's third-largest fully publicly-traded company by market value has built one of the largest solar panel manufacturing businesses in the world since 1980, with around $500 million invested 1999-2005, BP sources said.
The oil major is ramping up its wind business with around $300 million invested in wind generation and turbine manufacturing businesses in the past 15 months, according to published figures and BP sources.
BP, like Shell, is focusing its biofuels investments on developing second-generation technology.
The London-based company is to spend $500 million over the next 10 years to fund an Energy Biosciences Institute, based at the University of California Berkeley, that will explore how bioscience can be used to increase energy production.
BP has been working with DuPont on biofuels development since 2003 and later this year plans to launch a biofuel that can be mixed with gasoline called biobutanol.
BP is building facilities at its Bulwer Refinery in Queensland, Australia to produce, from later this year, 110 million litres per annum of renewable diesel from tallow.
BP is also funding a 10-year, $9.4 million project in India to examine the possibilities of using Jatropha, a non-edible oil bearing crop which can be grown on marginal land, as a biofuels component.
Total: around $900 million
2006 Capital expenditure: $16.9 billion.
TOTAL SA
The fourth-largest Western oil company has modest investments in renewable energy.
Total has a five-turbine wind farm near its Les Flandres refinery complex in northern France. The facility has an installed capacity of 12 MW a year and cost around 15 million euros, according to the Total website.
Total is 50 percent partner in a 100 million euros plan to build a 90 MW wind farm in the south of France and is examining other schemes capable of generating several dozen megawatts.
Total has been involved in solar power since 1983. It has a 50-50 joint venture with French utility EDF called Tenesol, that has a solar panel factory in South Africa that manufactures 35 MW of capacity per year and plans another in Toulouse with a capacity of 15 MW per year.
Total was a founding investor and currently holds a 47.8 percent stake in Belgium-based photovoltaic cell manufacturer Photovoltech, which has capacity of around 22 MW per annum. Total's initial investment was around 7 million euros.
Total is investing in biofuels research in partnership with a number of Dutch and German companies and helping fund research programmes run by the European Union and a French foundation.
The company has no biofuels manufacturing capacity and in February the company scrapped plans to build a biodiesel manufacturing plant with Finland's Neste Oil, at Total's Dunkirk refinery because of rising costs.
A spokesman said Total plans to invest 250 million euros on wind power and solar projects 2005-2010 and another 100 million euros for research but added little of this had been spent yet.
Analysts estimate the company has invested less than $100 million and the Total spokesman did not dispute the figure.
2006 Capex: 11.85 billion euros.
Chevron Corp
Chevron promotional documents supplied by spokespeople said the company spent $2 billion between 2002 and 2006 on renewable and alternative energy projects and energy efficiency schemes.
Chevron also says it is the largest producer of renewable power among the big oil companies, thanks to its geothermal power projects in Indonesia and the Philippines which have installed capacity of 1152 MW.
Nonetheless, investments seem relatively modest. The California-based company said in its 2004 Corporate Responsibility report that it invested approximately $60 million in renewable energy projects between 1999 and 2004.
Significant investments during 2005 and 2006 included spending on a $128 million expansion to its Indonesian geothermal operations which is due to be completed in 2007 and the purchase of a 22 percent stake in biofuels manufacturer Galveston Bay Biodiesel for a reported sum of $3.5 million in 2006.
The fifth-largest “supermajor” as the five biggest western oil companies are known, is investing in biofuels research.
In 2006 Chevron agreed to provide the University of California, Davis with up to $25 million over five years for research into converting cellulosic biomass into transportation fuels.
Chevron has also committed up to $12 million for advanced research into cellulosic biofuels and hydrogen at the Georgia Institute of Technology and is working with the U.S. Department of Energy on biofuels research.
Chevron has some small solar operations including a 500 kW solar array at Bakersfield, California.
Subsidiary Chevron Energy Solutions designs and installs renewable energy systems for customers.
Total: 1999-2006 – around $200 million.
2006 Capital investment: $16.6 billion