Despite calls to reduce fossil fuels, TotalEnergies announced on Wednesday that it intended to “increase its hydrocarbon production by 2 to 3% per year over the next five years”, while ensuring that it wanted to maintain “the course of its multi-faceted strategy”. -balanced energies” with its strong growth in renewable electricity.
The French group intends to “increase its hydrocarbon production by 2 to 3% per year over the next five years”, in oil and gas thanks to “its rich portfolio of low-cost and low-emission projects” from gas to greenhouse effect, the group announced in a press release shortly before presenting its strategy to investors in New York.
Between 2019 and 2022, years partly marked by COVID, the group’s gas and oil production continued to decline, and until now the French giant has not communicated a quantified growth or decline objective, counting on stable global oil and gas production by the end of the decade.
The group said it intended to “drastically reduce emissions from its operations”, confirming its target of a 40% reduction by 2030 compared to 2015.
CEO Patrick Pouyanné repeats that his group continues to invest in new oil and gas projects to meet global demand, particularly in emerging countries, while diversifying its activities towards renewable electricity, wind and solar.
A strategy reaffirmed on Wednesday in front of investors: “more energy, more electricity, fewer emissions, growing cash flow”.
“This strategy will allow the company to achieve its greatest growth in the coming years, by the end of the decade,” thanks to energy production increasing by 4%, declared the CEO.
This year, the group announced new oil projects notably in Surinam and Abu Dhabi and in liquefied natural gas in the United States, with the objective of consolidating its position as the 3rd global player in LNG.
CEO Patrick Pouyanné also wanted to be reassuring about his LNG project in Mozambique, stopped in 2021 due to security problems and which could resume by the end of 2023: “the situation has clearly improved” , he said.
“Facade intentions”
The group plans to invest between 14 and 18 billion dollars in the next five years, and between 16 and 18 billion in the high range, including 30% in new oil and gas projects and around 33% in low-carbon energies.
Continuing its development strategy in electricity, despite investors’ doubts, the group indicated that it wanted to achieve profitability of its electricity activities of around 12% compared to 10% in 2023. It is targeting production of 100 TWh of electricity by 2030, from renewable, solar and wind installations, but also from gas.
“Thanks to the refocusing of the oil and gas portfolio on assets and projects” with low costs and “low emissions” and “the diversification in electricity, particularly renewable […] the company is implementing its transition strategy while guaranteeing an attractive shareholder return policy,” the group declared in its press release.
In 2023, it plans to reward its shareholders by paying the “$1.5 billion of the amounts received from the sale of Canadian assets to share buybacks to bring them to $9 billion over the year,” he said. it stated in reference to its exit from the tar sands in Canada. The group is thus revising its forecasts of “return to the shareholder of more than 40% of cash flow (cash flow) beyond 2023”, compared to 44% in 2023.
By announcing that it wants to increase its oil gas production, in contradiction with calls from climate experts to reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, TotalEnergies has attracted a new round of criticism.
“By focusing on fossil fuels, TotalEnergies is once again showing that it is anything but a player in the energy transition,” denounced Louis-Maxence Delaporte, energy analyst at the NGO Reclaim Finance.
“Behind the good intentions and the cynicism of claiming to produce “low-emission” hydrocarbons, TotalEnergies continues its business of destroying the climate to make ever more profits,” responded Greenpeace.