Tausi Insider

Shell has injected nearly $1.5-billion in cash and credit into its British energy retail business this year to help it weather huge volatility in power prices that caused the collapse of several rival U.K. power utilities, Shell Energy said in a filing on Thursday. Britain’s power utilities have been rocked by huge fluctuations in energy prices since the end of 2021 due to a shortage in natural gas supplies, which was exacerbated after Russia sharply reduced supplies to Europe following its invasion of Ukraine in February. The volatility led to several bankruptcies in the sector, including Bulb, which the British government is set to rescue at a cost of up to £6.5-billion ($8-billion). Shell Energy’s SHEL-N operating loss rose to £102.4-million in 2021 from £83.6-million a year earlier, according to the company’s financial results, released on Thursday. The loss was “principally driven by market conditions. In particular, the unprecedented rise in energy prices in the latter part of ...

French energy giant TotalEnergies said Friday that it will walk away from its stake in Russian natural gas producer Novatek and take a $3.7 billion loss. TotalEnergies, which has come under criticism for pursuing some of its projects in Russia amid the war in Ukraine, said Western sanctions prevent it from selling its 19.4% stake to the Russian company. It said it was withdrawing its representatives from the Novatek board, who have been abstaining from voting because of sanctions, with “immediate effect.” As a result, TotalEnergies will no longer account for its ownership interest in Novatek, which will lead it “to record an impairment of approximately $3.7 billion in the accounts for the 4th quarter of 2022,” the French company said in a statement. In line with its “principles of conduct” published on March 22, TotalEnergies “has gradually started to withdraw from its Russian assets while ensuring that it continues to supply gas to Europe.” It comes amid an energy crisis in Europe p...

A group of investors has tabled resolutions urging four of the world’s top oil and gas companies to set broad climate targets for 2030, reviving pressure on the sector after a year that saw governments shift their focus to energy security. Activist group Follow This said it had co-filed the resolutions with six major institutional investors managing $1.3 trillion in assets ahead of the annual general meetings of BP , Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Shell next year. In the resolutions, the investors call on the companies to set targets to reduce by 2030 greenhouse gas emissions including those from fuel sold to customers, known as Scope 3 emissions, which account for the vast majority of the sector’s pollution. Investors have in recent years ramped up pressure on the oil and gas sector to help tackle climate change, and the Follow This climate-related resolutions have drawn growing support among shareholders. However, last year the efforts largely sputtered as investors turned their focus mo...

Shell SHEL-N is considering exiting its home energy retail businesses in Britain, the Netherlands and Germany in the wake of “tough market conditions,” it said on Thursday. European energy suppliers have struggled over the past year with soaring wholesale prices and efforts by governments to shield consumers from rising bills. Shell said it had launched a strategic review of the three businesses which is likely to take a few months, but that no decision had been taken yet on their future. Shell injected nearly $1.5-billion in cash and credit into its British energy retail business in 2022 to help it weather huge volatility in power prices that caused the collapse of several rival UK utilities. Shell Energy Retail, its UK business, has 1.4 million customers, while its German business has 110,000 and the Dutch business 15,000. Shell said its wholesale and business-to-business (B2B) energy supply businesses were not part of the strategic review, and neither were its home energy supply b...