written by / Tu Yanping
edited by / Meng Designed for
/ Zhao Haoran
It's been 2022, and the most profitable company in the world is actually an oil company.
In August this year, Fortune released the "2022 World 500" list, among which the 50 most profitable companies in the world were announced.
Saudi Aramco's net profit in 2021 was about US$105.4 billion, and Apple's net profit in 2021 was about US$94.7 billion. The former surpassed the latter and became the most profitable company in the world.
2022 Fortune Global 500 top companies, the picture comes from Fortune
This is the data from last year, what about this year? In the first half of this year, Saudi Aramco continued to firmly occupy the position of the world's profit king of listed companies with a half-year net profit of US$87.91 billion. Moreover, not only Saudi Aramco, but many oil companies have made a lot of money.
In the second quarter of this year, BP's net profit hit a 14-year high, ExxonMobil's net profit increased by 2.8 times year-on-year, Shell's net profit set a record for two consecutive quarters, and Chevron's net profit was nearly 4 times that of the same period last year.
Oil giants have made a lot of money, and behind it are the factors of energy supply shortages and rising oil prices caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war. This also reflects the complexity of energy transformation. Obviously, we have no way to get rid of our dependence on fossil energy as soon as possible.
is also a heavy blow to the global carbon neutrality process.
But there is no need to worry that oil giants who "make more than God" will be immersed in their current performance. After all, whether from the perspective of investment prospects, corporate responsibility, or from a moral consciousness, or even from compliance with the law, the energy transformation of oil companies is an urgent task.
In May 2021, the Hague District Court in the Netherlands ruled that Shell must control carbon emissions to 45% of the 2019 level by 2030, and the company is obliged to ensure that the carbon emissions of Shell Group, suppliers and customers are reduced by implementing company policies.
The court mandates oil and gas companies to comply with the Paris climate agreement to reduce carbon emissions, and this ruling is the first in the world. The lawsuit was filed by the public welfare and environmental protection organization Friends of the Earth.
In fact, Shell has set its goal to become a zero-emission energy company by 2050. However, the court's ruling is stricter than this goal.
From gas station to charging and swap station
Faced with energy transformation, in February 2021, Shell proposed the "Empowerment and Progress" strategy, with the goal of becoming a very large-scale low-carbon enterprise by the early 2030s and achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
To achieve this goal, Shell said at the time that the company's total carbon emissions had peaked in 2018 and confirmed that its total oil production had peaked in 2019. It is expected that oil production will gradually decrease by about 1%-2% each year.
Starting from the 2021 annual shareholders' meeting, Shell submitted an energy transformation plan to shareholders and conducted consultation and vote on opinions, becoming the first company in the industry to do this.
In order to achieve energy transformation, Shell's strategy will rebalance its business portfolio in the short term, investing 5 billion to 6 billion US dollars in future growth businesses every year, investing 8 billion to 9 billion in transformation support businesses, and investing about 8 billion in traditional upstream businesses.
In terms of gas station and charging station business layout, Shell proposed that by 2025, the number of gas stations worldwide will increase from 46,000 at that time to 55,000, and the number of customers will increase from 30 million to 40 million; the global electric vehicle charging network will increase from more than 60,000 charging terminals at that time to about 500,000 in 2025 (it has now increased to more than 90,000).
In terms of renewable energy, Shell has proposed the goal of occupying a double-digit market share in global clean hydrogen energy sales.
charging stations and hydrogen energy are in an important position in Shell's energy transformation. In the Chinese market, Shell is actively promoting the layout of related businesses.
On January 28, 2022, Shell launched a 20,000 kilowatt electrolytic hydrogen production project in Zhangjiakou, which is also one of the largest electrolytic hydrogen production projects in the world. The project is constructed by a joint venture established by Shell China and Zhangjiakou Transportation Construction Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd.
This project uses wind power. During the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a total of about 100 tons of green hydrogen were supplied to more than 600 hydrogen fuel cell buses in the Zhangjiakou competition area. After the Winter Olympics, the hydrogen produced here was used for public and commercial transportation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
htmlOn July 29, Shell China and Shanghai Shenneng Neng Chuang Energy Development Co., Ltd. signed an agreement to establish a joint venture company "Shanghai Shenneng Shell New Energy Co., Ltd.". The two parties will invest in the construction of a hydrogen refueling station network in Shanghai through the joint venture, which will become Shell's first hydrogen refueling station network in Asia.The joint venture plans to build 6-10 hydrogen refueling stations in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region within the next five years. By 2030, its scale will expand to 30 hydrogen refueling stations covering the Yangtze River Delta region, which can supply hydrogen to about 3,000 fuel cell trucks or buses per day.
Hydrogen energy is a key area of oil companies' energy transformation. Many oil giants such as Shell, Total, Norwegian National Petroleum have joined the International Hydrogen Energy Commission.
In the trend of oil companies scrambling to deploy charging networks, Shell acquired NewMotion, the largest operator of Europe's electric vehicle charging stations, as early as 2017. Since then, the UK's largest public electric vehicle charging network Ubittricity, European energy storage battery manufacturer Sonnen, North American charging facility manufacturer Greenlots, German electric vehicle charging infrastructure company SBRS, etc. have appeared on Shell's acquisition list one after another.
In the Chinese market, Shell chose to jointly develop the charging network with new energy vehicle companies.
On August 1 this year, the first charging and swapping station jointly jointly with Shell and NIO, Xiamen Tongan Shell Station was officially launched. Their cooperation began in November 2021, when the two parties signed an agreement to build battery swap stations in Europe starting from 2022 and carry out operational pilot projects. Shell's European charging network will be open to NIO electric vehicle users; by 2025, the two parties will build a total of 100 battery swap stations in China.
(Picture from Shell China)
On March 24 this year, Shell and BYD signed a global strategic cooperation agreement to jointly promote energy transformation. Shell will provide membership services to BYD customers, covering more than 275,000 charging terminals on its charging roaming network. The two sides also intend to jointly build Shell-BYD electric vehicle service center in major European markets, and carry out global R&D cooperation in the fields of battery performance and industry-leading charging.
Shell and BYD also plan to jointly establish a joint venture to develop an electric vehicle charging network in China. The joint venture is expected to operate more than 10,000 electric vehicle charging terminals in Shenzhen and plans to expand to other Chinese cities in the future.
Whether it is international oil giants such as Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, BP, Chevron, or China's "three barrels of oil" PetroChina, Sinopec, and CNOOC, investing or directly deploying electric vehicle charging and swapping infrastructure is a common choice in their energy transformation.
charging and swapping stations may gradually replace gas stations and become the cash cow of oil companies. BP revealed in early 2021 that its charging station business profit level is about to surpass gas stations.
Lubricant and battery coolant
In August this year, during the 14th International Automobile Transmission and Drive Technology Seminar, Automobile Business Review had the opportunity to contact Shell China's team members and learn about Shell's recent business situation.
From left to right: Ran Lixin, senior project manager of Shell (Shanghai) Technology Center, Wen Hai, general manager of Lubricant Technology of Shell China and Asia Pacific, Chen Zhengyi, OEM Lubricant Marketing Director of Shell (China) Co., Ltd.,
Hai, general manager of Lubricant Technology of Shell China and Asia Pacific, told Automobile Business Review that since Shell proposed the "Empowerment and Progress" strategy in 2021, Shell has achieved a reduction in unit carbon emissions of more than 30% in the past three years, while energy consumption per unit production has been reduced by 20%, and the corresponding energy consumption cost has been reduced by 25%. Shell's lubricant mixing plants in Zhejiang and Zhuhai also achieved full green electricity production last year.
Shell also combines its experience in energy consumption management with a digital platform to provide production energy efficiency management consulting and services to automobile companies and upstream suppliers, and also provides green electricity trading services to reduce the intensity of production carbon from the source and increase the proportion of renewable energy.
Shell's chemical division provides recyclable chemical raw materials for vehicle manufacturing of automobile companies. In response to the increasing number of pure electric vehicles in the Chinese market, Shell has also launched core products such as E-Fluids, E-Greases, and E-Thermal Fluids.
Shanghai (Shanghai) Technology Center Ran Lixin, senior project manager of Shell (Shanghai) Technology Center, said: "Shell has always been very concerned about the development of automobile electrification trends. As early as a few years ago, it began the formulation research and development of lubricants, battery coolants and electric vehicle greases related to electric vehicles."
In 2019, Shell released the E-Fluids series lubricant products and used them in hybrid and pure electric vehicles of domestic OEMs. At present, Shell is working closely with OEM to develop BEV special lubricants suitable for the latest 800V technology platform.
In addition, Shell's research on E-Thermal Fluids for battery thermal management has also achieved phased results, jointly developed with Tsinghua University and European OEMs. This latest research result of battery oil cooling technology has also been applied to cooperation with domestic OEMs.
Shell's E-Greases (greases for electric vehicles) have also been used in mainstream OEM pure electric vehicles in China. At present, Shell Shanghai Technology Center is working with OEM to jointly develop hub grease for the latest generation of BEVs.
When the electric car is on the road, Shell's charging and swapping station provides users with energy replenishment services.
"Automobiles are an industry with a long chain. The four stages of production, sales, transportation and maintenance involve many industries, and have also created a lot of demand." Chen Zhengyi, OEM lubricant marketing director of Shell (China) Co., Ltd., said, "Shell, as an energy company with many touchpoints to automobile company customers in the entire automobile industry chain, has taken action quickly."
This article is originally produced by Automobile Business Review
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