Shell to slash up to $22bn from the value of its assets

Shell is to cut up to $22bn from the value of its assets due to the COVID-19 pandemic and falling oil prices.

Responding to the news, Luke Parker, Vice President, Corporate Analysis at Wood Mackenzie, says: ‘The impairment Shell has announced is about more than an accounting technicality, or an adjustment to near-term price assumptions. It’s about fundamental change hitting the entire oil and gas sector. Within this write down, Shell is giving us a message about stranded assets, just like BP did a few weeks ago.’

Parker sees this as part of a wider trend. ‘Just a few years ago, few within the oil and gas industry would even countenance ideas of climate risk, peak demand, stranded assets, liquidation business models and so on. Today, companies are building strategies around these ideas. Demand might still grow from here, and many companies are still chasing a share of that growth. But make no mistake, the corporate landscape is changing, and the majors are changing with it.’

Meanwhile, Michael Bradshaw, Professor of Global Energy at Warwick Business School, adds: ‘How individuals, governments, and businesses respond to the COVID-19 crisis in the months ahead will have long-term implications for the environment and the future of oil-producing companies and countries. After the financial crash in 2008 there was a rapid rebound in the use of fossil fuels. Within two years we returned to the same path of growing carbon emissions we would have been on if the crisis never happened. World leaders face a similar decision this time. They could aim for another quick and dirty recovery, increasing fossil fuel consumption to get the economy back on track, or they can double down on the promises of clean, green growth outlined in the Paris Agreement and treat the recovery as an opportunity to decarbonise their economies.’

He continues: ‘Environmental groups are already lobbying to prevent the Paris Agreements becoming another casualty of the pandemic, stressing the need for a Green New Deal. If they are successful, demand for oil might never return to the peak we saw prior to COVID-19. For example, there is no guarantee the transport sector will fully recover. After the pandemic, we might have a different attitude to international air travel or physically going into work. This will create huge challenge for oil producers, especially if demand and prices fail to recover sufficiently to support a managed transition to a more sustainable future.’