Equinor abandons target for renewable energy

In a Tuesday strategy update, Equinor, the Norwegian oil and gas group, announced that it had further'scaled back' its renewable energy ambitions. It has dropped a 2030 target for installed capacity and cut investment.

This change reflects a broader industry trend. In recent years, peers like BP and Shell have abandoned ambitions to transition from oil and natural gas production towards renewable energy.

Equinor has dropped its 2030 renewable energy goal and instead provided a 'power generation outlook, including non-renewable technologies for electricity production.

"We do not replace one business with another. We are instead developing multiple paths in parallel, including oil and?gas; power and renewables; and new 'low-carbon' solutions," Equinor CEO Anders Opedal stated in a press release.

Equinor has been working towards a goal of 10-12 gigawatts of renewable energy installed capacity by the end this decade. However, this is no longer on its list of goals that it will be presenting in a strategy update in New York this Tuesday.

The goal had been trimmed down from a prior target, set for 2020, to become "an offshore 'wind major'" by installing 12-16 GW in a 10 year period.

Equinor announced last year that it would no longer be aiming to devote half of its capital expenditures to renewables by 2030. On Tuesday, the company presented plans to allocate 10% of its capex to their power business.

Equinor still expects to increase its power production by four times, from 5.5 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2025 to 20 TWh, mostly from the electricity projects that are already under construction.

This move comes after Equinor established its Power business area, which combined renewable energy with gas-fired generators, energy storage assets and trading activities, in 2025. (Reporting and editing by Terje Solsvik, Nora Buli)

(source: Reuters)