Paris (AFP)
"All is well": after a calamitous year 2020, the oil and gas giants are once again raking in generous profits, which should benefit shareholders but also, they promise, the energy transition.
Several large groups have published their results in recent days, with big profits for BP ($ 4.7 billion), Shell ($ 5.7 billion) or Total ($ 3.3 billion).
The latter did even better than in the first quarter of 2019, before the crisis.
"Total has already returned to its rate of high results as before the crisis", underlined its CEO Patrick Pouyanné in the daily Sud Ouest.
"Everything is fine," he summed up.
The Norwegian Equinor for its part unveiled its "best quarterly results since 2014".
However, these companies have come a long way after an exceptionally bad year 2020.
The world's five largest private companies (BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and Total) had accumulated net losses of $ 77 billion last year, including accounting charges.
To pass the course, they had announced savings programs and lower investments as well as, for some, job cuts.
The oil markets had collapsed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which slowed economic activity and practically shut down certain sectors of activity such as air transport.
The prices had even been briefly negative.
They have since recovered sharply with the more optimistic economic outlook and the progress of vaccination.
A barrel of Brent from the North Sea is currently trading at just over $ 67.
"These are profitable course levels and the strong results of the oil companies are not surprising," said Michael Tamvakis, professor at Business School (formerly Cass) in London.
"For now, they have survived the storm."
- Dividends and transition -
The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts a rebound in global demand of 5.7 million barrels per day (mb / d) this year, to reach 96.7 mb / d.
It had plunged 8.7 million barrels last year.
Goldman Sachs analysts this week predicted a barrel of $ 80 a barrel in the next six months.
They also expect "a significant rebound in global oil demand", citing vaccination and the expected resumption of air travel.
With this return to better fortune, the "supermajors" do not forget to pamper their shareholders.
Shell announces an increase in its dividend in the first quarter, compared to the fourth quarter, after having decided to reduce it at the height of the health crisis for the first time since the 1940s. Equinor also increases its own.
BP for its part will resume its share buybacks in the second quarter in order to reward its shareholders, after having been forced to lower the amount of the dividend in 2020.
But companies assure that this does not call into question their investments in the energy transition.
"Our job is to show that you can do both over time," said BP Managing Director Bernard Looney.
"We can ensure the transition of BP into the future and at the same time - not instead - ensure competitive cash returns for our investors," he said.
Companies in the sector, mainly Europeans, are in fact preparing for a world in which oil will play a lesser role due to efforts to limit global warming.
They are thus seeking to diversify, particularly in electricity from renewable sources.
Their objectives have not been affected by the crisis and the cuts in investment programs.
Total had thus enshrined its spending in these areas when it came to saving money and has increased redemptions since the start of the year.
Again Thursday, Total announced its entry into a 640 megawatt offshore wind project under construction in Taiwan.
The pressure for change is strong, coming from civil society but also from investors, and the former oil companies are now more willing to present themselves as companies in the "energy" sector in the broader sense.
"The fundamental question of energy transition has not disappeared and a few good or bad results will not change their long-term strategy," said Michael Tamvakis.
"These results will probably give them some air, the confidence and the capital they need to continue with their transition strategies," he said.
© 2021 AFP