Liam Denning, Columnist

Big Oil’s Big Issue With Embracing ‘Big Energy’

Companies accustomed to the huge profit surges that fossil fuels provide may have trouble adjusting to the rhythms of renewables.

February 12, 2019 at 2:30 PM UTC

Corrected

February 14, 2019 at 7:26 PM UTC

By Liam Denning

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

Big Oil's future?
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images Europe

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Oil majors increasingly are trying their hand at being alternative-energy minors.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which traces its roots back to the late 19th century, just bought Greenlots, a California software company serving the electric-vehicle charging sector. This follows other deals by Shell — along with the likes of BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and Total SA — to invest in renewable energy, retail power, batteries and other non-fossil fuel businesses.