Royal Dutch Shell is to launch as an electricity supplier in Britain, challenging some of Europe’s biggest utilities. The oil major has applied for a licence to supply power to businesses across Britain and plans to start signing up industrial customers now to provide them with electricity early next year. Shell also will establish a significant business at a stroke by taking over power supply to all 600 sites that it owns in the UK, comprising about 550 petrol stations as well as its offices, terminals and oil and gas platforms. The move forms part of a strategic push into the electricity sector by the Anglo-Dutch company as it adapts to rising global demand for clean energy. Ben van Beurden, chief executive, said last month that “further electrification of the economy” would be crucial if the world was to hit its climate targets and could hasten the point at which global oil demand would peak. Shell needed to adapt by getting “involved in the electrical chain, in the renewable business and more in petrochemicals”, he said.
Times 7th Aug 2017 read more »
