Oil majors in Europe investing more in biofuels

Europe’s oil majors are investing eight times more in biofuels than in hydrogen, according to a new study on behalf of the Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment (T&E).

Around 75% of the European refining sector’s €39bn ($42.23bn) of planned investments in alternative fuels up to 2030 will go towards increasing biofuels production, states the report. Between €2bn and €3bn will be invested in new hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) plants, doubling production capacity of this advanced biofuel to ten megatonnes by 2030. This is four times higher than what can be sustainably sourced in the EU, according to T&E’s analysis. It warns of mass imports of “dubious” used cooking oil as feedstock from abroad.

Shell Puget Sound Oil Refinery near Anacortes, Washington, US. (Photo by Stuart Westmorland via Getty Images)

Shell, BP, Total, ENI and Repsol are investing around €6.5bn in blue hydrogen (hydrogen produced from natural gas and supported by carbon capture and storage); double what they are spending on producing green hydrogen (produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity) and e-fuels like e-methane and e-kerosene (produced with renewable electricity, water and CO2).

T&E concludes with a list of policy recommendations to move Europe’s oil majors beyond biofuels and blue hydrogen.