A NEW PROVIDER
BP is seeking to become a retail electricity provider in Texas and four other states.
BP wants to be your power supplier, too.
The oil and natural gas giant is seeking permission to become a retail electricity provider to homes and businesses initially in Illinois, Ohio, Texas, California and Pennsylvania, according to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filing issued last week. BP Energy Retail’s affiliates own or control more than 2,000 megawatts of wind generation.
“It gives BP a huge new branding opportunity,” said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program. “They are already a massive power trader. Locking up tens of thousands of retail customers helps boost their trading by locking in a bunch of customers with fixed supply contracts.”
The move isn’t wholly unexpected as the global push to electrify everything from cars to home heating and invest in renewable energy to combat climate change is breaking down traditional energy silos, particularly among European oil majors.
BP, the largest physical gas marketer in North America, has branded retail gasoline stations across the country and is already a significant wholesale power trader.
Two years ago, rival super major Royal Dutch Shell said it aims to become the world’s single largest power generator.
The move coincided with what the company said was the peak of its oil production.
Shell has said its oil output peaked in 2019, and it has laid out a plan to transform its fossil fuels business into a clean-energy provider to meet its goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. The company, with 8,000 employees in the Houston area, said in February that it will invest as much as $6 billion a year in renewable energy projects while selling off its stakes in oil exploration and production projects to the tune of $4 billion a year over 10 years.
“We must give our customers the products and services they want and need - products that have the lowest environmental impact,” CEO Ben van Beurden said in a statement. “At the same time, we will use our established strengths to build on our competitive portfolio as we make the transition to be a net-zero emissions business in step with society.”
The Anglo Dutch supermajor in January agreed to buy a 51 percent stake in an Irish project to develop a floating wind farm in the Celtic Sea. Shell has been involved in offshore wind since 2000 and has more than 6 gigawatts of wind projects in development, according to its website.
Also in January, Shell bought the U.K.’s largest public electric vehicle charging network.
Meanwhile, French oil major Total is planning to develop a dozen solar and energy storage projects in the U.S., including five in Texas.
Total on Thursday said it inked a deal with 174 Power Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, to develop 1.6 gigawatts of solar projects nationally. The first project started production in 2020, and the remainder will come online in 2022 and 2024, the companies said. Three of the projects will be in West Texas, one in central Texas and one in south Texas.
Total last year set a goal to become a net-zero emissions company by 2050, and is rebuilding its energy portfolio so that renewables and electricity will become up to 40 percent of its sales by 2050.
U.S. oil majors such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron have been slower to jump on the energy transition, betting that the world’s growing population will continue to fuel oil and gas demand as it has for the past century. Instead of diving into alternative energy sources, the U.S. oil giants are focusing on adapting oil and gas operations to capture carbon emissions and to make it commercially viable.
Fuel Fix staff contributed.