ESG disruption will shake up oil and gas market and is an opportunity for companies
Hydrocarbon demand is set to fall in the coming decades due to the measures the Paris Agreement signee governments will take to discourage emissions and ensure the success of net-zero goals. This agreement will render conventional oil and gas activity less and less viable. In order to reduce emissions and minimise loses, oil and gas companies should adopt measures such as carbon pricing by altering processes across the value chain, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s report, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) in Oil and Gas – Thematic Research, reveals that technological innovation and increased consumer mindfulness will make sustainable alternatives to hydrocarbon-intensive products more and more attractive. For example, in transport, historically the largest hydrocarbon-demanding sector, conventional cars will be displaced almost entirely by electric vehicles (EVs).
|
Advertisement: The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC) NGC’s HSSE strategy is reflective and supportive of the organisational vision to become a leader in the global energy business. |
George Monaghan, oil and gas analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Though some demand will remain, survival for most current oil and gas companies will mean transitioning to a new product. While there are many options for products, with renewable energy being the most popular, companies will only succeed if they invest while demand is there to capitalise on already strong cashflows by the time demand falls. Companies that wait until hydrocarbon revenues dry up will have insufficient cash to fund a transition.”
Oil and gas companies will need effective governance to steer themselves through the existential disruption that the next three or four decades will bring. A balancing act will be necessary: meeting net-zero objectives while retaining scale demands deft leadership. For example, companies must sustain sufficient cashflows to handle demand volatility, overhaul their asset portfolios, make astute investments, and satisfy sustainability-minded stakeholders, all while providing stable dividends.
Monaghan continues: “As millennials come to dominate the consumer base and workforce and begin to assert their preferences, companies that fail to maintain good social practices (toward workers and affected local communities) will struggle to attract and retain customers and employees.”
The emission reduction strategies available to oil and gas companies can be divided into two broad approaches: change the process and change the product. It is easy but unwise to underestimate the effectiveness of the ‘change the process’ approach. It involves multiple small and unglamorous changes but can deliver significant emission reductions. At the same time, meeting 2040 or 2050 net-zero goals and dealing with the increasing unavailability of hydrocarbon reserves will require companies to change the product.
Monaghan continues: “Scope 1 and 2 emissions represent the majority of emissions for which the oil and gas industry is responsible. These emissions can be reduced by altering value chain practices. Since the end product is unchanged, this ‘change the process’ approach requires less R&D and infrastructural investment. It promises short- and mid-term returns.
“However, other emissions are inextricable from oil and gas, particularly those produced by end-user combustion of the hydrocarbons (termed scope 3). Technological innovations may reduce the carbon content of the end-product, but practically, so long as the end-product is oil and gas, the company producing it will be responsible for significant scope emissions. To eliminate these emissions, companies must transition to a new end-product. This is the ‘change the product’ approach.”
The statements, opinions and data contained in the content published in Global Gas Perspectives are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s) of Natural Gas World.