Total Share Discussion Threads

[sarkasm] 24/9/2016 15:05

Total’s not-so-excellent adventure, Big Oil’s conundrum

Even if a supply shortfall looms, Big Oil isn’t necessarily best positioned to capitalise on it
Published: 15:31 September 24, 2016
Gulf News
Liam Denning, Bloomberg


New York: Total has an admirably straightforward approach to dealing with the slump in oil and gas prices:

In an environment where oil and gas prices have fallen significantly and remain volatile, Total is focused on being excellent at everything it can control.

Sure, “be excellent” is an oddly retro, Bill-and-Ted-esque mantra for a French oil major. But it recognises that, even when you’re in the ranks of Big Oil, there’s really damn all you can do to move the market price one way or the other. When you produce a commodity, sustainable success really comes down to getting your hands on the lowest-cost reserves and sweating those assets furiously.

And at Thursday’s strategy presentation in London, Total duly announced further cost cuts and another $2 billion or so coming out of its annual capital expenditure budget. Even so, the company says, it will increase its oil and gas production by 5 per cent a year through 2020 and keep growing at 1 or 2 per cent a year after that.

Investors ate it up, and a 4 per cent jump in the stock took Total from being the year’s worst performer in Big Oil’s ranks to third place.

Excellent as that sounds, though, there are undeniable tensions in Total’s message to the market that show how hard it is for Big Oil to adapt to a world of lower energy prices.

The big clue was on slide 3:

Over on the right-hand side is Total’s macro outlook for the global oil market. It boils down to this: That is a huge gap — roughly equivalent to, at the low end, an Iraq or, at the high end, a Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia! If that’s true, then those 2020 Brent futures trading at around $57 a barrel are beyond ridiculously cheap. Moreover, Total (and every other major) should be out buying up every decent oil prospect, field or company they can lay their hands on and directing every spare dollar toward exploring for and developing more of the stuff.

They aren’t, though. Total itself — which would like to actually offload some high-cost reserves such as its oil sands — says there’s no real M&A market right now. The company also plans to spend roughly $500 million a year to keep building a renewable energy business, where it just paid $1.1 billion for a battery firm.

Total may be unique among its peers in ploughing that much money into what is effectively a hedge against disruption to its core oil and gas business. But it isn’t alone in cutting back investment even as the world is apparently only four years away from an oil-supply crunch that would make 2008’s look like a mere dress rehearsal.

BP’s CEO Bob Dudley plans to hold capital expenditure flat through the rest of the decade. Royal Dutch Shell has adopted a similar position. And both Chevron and Exxon Mobil have also slashed budgets. And, defying expectations, none have made a big acquisition since Shell’s $64 billion takeover of BG Group, announced in April 2015.

Their reluctance may simply mean that, despite the dire warnings, they aren’t sure we’ll be short the equivalent of a Middle Eastern oil producer by 2020. There are any number of factors that could prevent such an outcome, ranging from Chinese economic pressures to lower decline rates than advertised to a freshly IPO’d Saudi Aramco, among others, raising production further.

Another explanation, though, is perhaps more worrying for Big Oil: that even if a supply shortfall looms, they aren’t necessarily best positioned to capitalise on it.

I wrote here about how the big five western oil majors invested $1.2 trillion over the past decade — most of it upstream — but were producing 1.3 million barrels a day less by the end of it. Rising costs and a lack of access to the most competitive resources sank their return on capital — which is why investors are keeping them in the penalty box on investment now, looming supply apocalypse or no.

And while Total, similar to its peers, touts “deflationR21; in costs in the past couple of years, at least some of that has come from simply squeezing the oilfield services sector. That’s a transference of pain rather than a cure for it — and industry leader Schlumberger has complained already that contractors need to get paid, especially if oil prices rise.

Layered on top of this is the threat of fundamental disruption to energy markets from a combination of carbon legislation and emerging technologies such as electric vehicles — something with which Exxon is struggling and at which Total’s renewables investments are aimed. This wild card presents an especially pernicious threat to the megaprojects in which the majors specialise, which take years to develop.

So oil majors say low investment is teeing up the price spike of the millennium, but for a variety of reasons can’t fully capitalise on it. Moreover, if 2020 does herald the return of triple-digit oil, this will encourage every rival producer from the Permian basin to the Arabian Gulf to go flat out and every driver to give at least a second thought to all those new, cheaper electric vehicles hitting the dealer lots.

Total’s strategy of preparing for all of the above is simultaneously a reasonable one and a perfect expression of Big Oil’s big conundrum.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

[sarkasm] 24/9/2016 08:40

France’s Total may return to South Pars
توت;ال فرا;نس 7; نفت; گاز;
News ID: 3777010 - Sat 24 September 2016 - 10:46
Economy
TEHRAN, Sep. 24 (MNA) – Deputy oil minister said Total S.A. Company has put forward a proposal to cooperate in development of Phase 11 of South Pars gas field.

Ali Kardor made the remarks underlining that two more foreign firms have also voiced readiness to launch partnership in the gas project.

Managing director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) emphasized that Iran’s new oil and gas projects will be put out to international tenders asserting “despite receiving proposals from Total of France and two other companies, no contract has become finalized or inked for developing Phase 11 of South Pars joint gas field.”

Apparently, Eni of Italy and South Korea’s Hyundai are the two firms who, in addition to total S.A., have expressed willingness to cooperate over the only South Pars phase which has remained undeveloped.

On the other hand, the Foreign Minister of France Laurent Fabius, in his earlier visit to Tehran, appreciated the activities of Total in Iran’s oil industry saying “the French company has been active in Iranian oil projects for the past 20 years while new windows are expected to be opened for Total’s presence in developmental projects of Iranian oil fields.” Iran’s Oil Minister had also made similar remarks on the sidelines of his meeting with the French FM.

Meanwhile, Managing Director of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Ali Akbar Shabanpour had stated earlier that talks were underway to hand over the drilling project of Phase 11 to two Iranian companies; “Phase 11 is as large as two ordinary phases and the drilling sections will be undertaken by Iranian firms,” he had underlined.

The development project of Phase 11 aims to transfer the produced gas to Phases 6, 8 and 12 in order to exploit their vacant refining capacity as well as to enhance access to required materials in the phase.

HA/3776310

[sarkasm] 23/9/2016 20:12

Total SA slashes spending. French oil giant Total (NYSE: TOT) outlined deeper cuts to spending on September 22, hoping to improve profitability. The moves call for sharper cuts to spending, boosting operational efficiency, and increase oil and gas production. Spending for 2017 will drop to between $15 billion and $17 billion, down from $18 billion to $19 billion this year. The adjustments will allow Total to cover capex, dividends, and resource renewal with cash flow, assuming an oil price of $55 per barrel in 2017. Total’s share price jumped by 3.7 percent on the news.

[ariane] 23/9/2016 07:51

22/09/2016 6:20pm
Dow Jones News

Total (EU:FP)
Intraday Stock Chart

Today : Friday 23 September 2016
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PARIS—French oil major Total SA on Thursday said it would further cut investment and costs on its operations to retain profitability as it continues to counter the oil-price collapse.

Patrick Pouyanné , Total's chief executive, Thursday told investors and analysts he will pursue the strategy that has kept the company in the black for most of the time since oil price collapsed in the second half of 2014: cut investment, lift operating efficiency and boost oil and gas output.

"In the short term, we will continue to be disciplined on capex and on cost-saving and focus on raising production," he told investors. "We focus on cash flow."

Even though the Total strategy to deal with an oil barrel worth less than half what it was two and half years ago is far from original, the French company has been more successful than most of its peers to carry it out. The company managed to keep booking billion-dollar profits in 2014 and 2015.

During his presentation, Mr. Pouyanné said the company plans to cut its investment to between $15 billion and $17 billion a year in 2017, down from an expected $18 billion to $19 billion this year and set up a target to cut costs by more than $4 billion in 2018, up from more than $2.4 billion expected this year and more than $3 billion targeted in 2017.

The Thursday announcement isn't a surprise, as most analysts expected a change in capex and cost-saving upgrade. The news, however, will raise investor interest in the shares of Total which haven't performed significantly better than its peers despite outperforming them, said brokerage Macquarie earlier this week.

Shares of Total ended 3.7% higher on Thursday, while the CAC-40 blue chip index was 2.3%.

The reduction of investment on its oil and gas fields and the more aggressive cost-cutting in the next two years will allow the company to cover all capital expenditure, resource renewal, cash dividend with its cash flow from operations with an oil price at $55 a barrel of Brent crude in 2017, the company said.

The company would generate enough cash flow to pay its expenses and dividend with a price of Brent oil at between $40 and $45 in 2020, Mr. Pouyanne said.

Despite increased cost-savings and lower investment, Total said it would lift output by 5% a year until 2020 and by between 1% and 2% a year thereafter. To achieve this, the company counts mainly on the projects it has invested in before the oil price collapsed and it started cutting on investment.

"We have 10 sizable projects under construction," Mr. Pouyanné said.

The company will focus on giant projects where production costs are low and where efficiency gains are easier to find, he said, while reducing its exposure to costly assets such as oil sands or mature declining fields.

In the medium term, Mr. Pouyanné , who expects the price of oil to inch up later as the imbalances between demand and supply widen, said the company will add to its strategy a focus on customer-oriented businesses, such as power utilities, that have thinner margins but represent more stable income flow.

The company will also speed up its investment in renewable energy to anticipate the impact on the energy markets of the political decisions to limit global warming. The company has recently bought French battery maker Saft and Belgian utility Lempiris as part of this strategy.

Total is serious about its foray into the renewable business. Mr. Pouyanné told investors and analysts: "We don't do that for the climate or for communications, we do it for profit."

Write to Inti Landauro at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 22, 2016 13:05 ET (17:05 GMT)

[ariane] 23/9/2016 07:47

TOTAL - Jefferies a relevé son objectif de cours à 44 euros contre 43,50 euros

[the grumpy old men] 19/9/2016 10:13

GOOGLE TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH

Total is the preferred value of Macquarie in its category
Total EUR2.5 (US: FP)
Chart Intraday Action

Today: Monday, September 19, 2016
More Graphics of EUR2.5 Total Exchange

The performance of shares Total (FP.FR) was lower in 2016 compared to those of other integrated oil companies, even if the results of the French oil major were better, notes Macquarie, confirming its recommendation "outperform" for the title . The results in 2016 and the expected rebound in margins for downstream activities in the fourth quarter "will focus the attention of investors on the defensive forces of the group and correct under-performance" of Total, said the bank. Macquarie has chosen Total as preferred value in its class. The bank maintained its target price of 50 euros for the title, which gained 2% to 41.45 euros in early morning.




-Inti Landauro, Dow Jones Newswires (French version Maylis Jouaret) ed: ECH




(END) Dow Jones Newswires


September 19, 2016 3:34 ET (7:34 GMT)

[waldron] 16/9/2016 20:02

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating why Exxon Mobil Corp. hasn't written down the value of its assets, two years into a pronounced crash in oil prices.

Mr. Schneiderman's office, which has been probing Exxon's past knowledge of the impact of climate change and how it could affect its future business, is also examining the company's accounting practices, according to people familiar with the matter.

An Exxon spokesman declined to comment about the investigation by the Democratic attorney general but said Exxon follows all rules and regulations.

Since 2014, oil producers world-wide have been forced to recognize that wells they plan to drill in the future are worth $200 billion less than they once thought, according to consultancy Rystad Energy. Because the fall in prices means billions of barrels cannot be economically tapped, such revisions have become a staple of oil-patch earnings, helping to push losses to record levels in recent years.

Exxon hasn't taken any write-downs—the only major oil producer not to do so—which has led some analysts to question its accounting practices.

The company has played down the criticism, saying it is extremely conservative in booking the value of new potential fields and wells. That reduces its exposure to write-downs if the assets later prove to be worth less than expected, it says.

Exxon's ability to avoid write-downs—and potential losses that come with them—has been among the factors helping the company outperform rivals since prices began falling in mid-2014. Exxon shares have fallen by about half of the average of top peers Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Total SA and BP PLC. Since 2014, those companies have booked more than $50 billion overall in write-downs and impairments.

Yet Exxon has lost money for six straight quarters in its U.S. drilling business. The company had to remove the equivalent of more than 900 million barrels of U.S. natural gas reserves from its books in 2015, an acknowledgment that wells on those properties cannot currently be economically drilled. When it agreed to purchase shale explorer XTO Energy Inc. in 2009 for $31 billion, natural gas sold for almost double what it does now.

For many producers, such losses in net income and reserves would make write-downs inevitable, but Exxon didn't write down the overall value of its reserves. The lack of such a step at Exxon "raises serious questions of financial stewardship," Paul Sankey, an oil analyst at Wolfe Research, wrote last month.

"It is impossible to believe that no assets have been impaired," he said.

The process for booking oil and gas reserves, and recognizing when they fall, is separate from accounting for how the value of those reserves changes over time on a company balance sheet.

John Herrlin, an analyst at Socié té Gé né rale, came to a different conclusion in an investor note last month, writing that about three fourths of Exxon's reserves are from areas with producing wells, a factor that makes impairments less likely than in undeveloped areas.

Exxon Chief Executive Rex Tillerson told trade publication Energy Intelligence last year that the company has been able to avoid write-downs because it places a high burden on executives to ensure that projects can work at lower prices, and holds them accountable.

"We don't do write-downs," Mr. Tillerson told the publication. "We are not going to bail you out by writing it down. That is the message to our organization."

Out of the 40 biggest publicly traded oil companies in the world, Exxon is the only one that hasn't booked any impairments in the last 10 years, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

In 2013, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked Exxon why it hadn't booked any impairments in the previous year, citing a speech Mr. Tillerson gave in June 2012 in which he said the company was making "no money" due to declining natural-gas prices.

Exxon's response then mirrors its position now: That short-term price fluctuations aren't enough to render worthless wells that would potentially be drilled over decades. Another key to the company's assessment is the view that its assets will hold value when prices eventually rebound.

Natural gas rose substantially in 2013 after the SEC's inquiry, but many oil executives and forecasters have said they expect prices to remain low for some time.

Last year, Exxon scrutinized its assets most at risk for impairment and found that future cash flows anticipated from its fields were "substantially" higher than the book value of the asset. Exxon "does not view temporarily low prices or margins as a trigger event for conducting impairment tests," according to a company filing.

The company is known for its conservatism in recognizing the value of reserves, a practice that results in lower write-downs, said Sean Heinroth, a principal in the energy practice at management consultancy A.T. Kearney. Exxon is also known for rigidly interpreting regulations and sometimes pushing back against regulators if company leaders feel their practices follow the law, he said.

"I would have expected some write-downs, even to avoid being called out on it, on being the last company not to have write-downs," he said.

Exxon has previously faced a lawsuit over its impairment practices. Plaintiffs including the Ohio state pension system alleged in a 2004 class-action suit that the company's failure to impair its properties undercut shareholders of Mobil Corp. in the 1999 deal that combined the companies.

The suit alleged that Exxon should have seen write-downs of between $3 billion to $7 billion in the late 1990s, another period of historically low prices. It included an allegation from a former Exxon insider that the company "operated under an order" by former Chief Executive Lee Raymond that "no impairment would be recorded."

Exxon denied the allegations. The lawsuit was dismissed because the statute of limitations on such claims had passed.

Dave Michaels contributed to this article.



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 16, 2016 06:45 ET (10:45 GMT)

[maywillow] 11/9/2016 19:36

September 22, 2016
2016 Investors’ Day

[grupo guitarlumber] 10/9/2016 14:26

Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 9

By Emil Ilgar – Trend:

Naftiran Intertrade Company Sàrl (NICO), a Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), reached an agreement with France’s Total to resume oil swap in the near future, Mehr reported Sep. 9.

According to the report, NICO and Total are preparing to sign an agreement to swap 160,000-200,000 barrels per day of oil to revive the swap operations from Caspian countries, which stopped six years ago.

Earlier, Fars news agency also reported that NICO is also finalizing the talks with Switzerland-based Vitol as well as British Petroleum to resume oil swap operations.

Under oil swap agreements, which started in 1997 and were in place for over 12 years, Iran received crude oil of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in the Neka port and delivered an equal volume to the clients of the same countries in Persian Gulf.

Iran says works are underway to increase the Neka port’s swap capacity from the current level of 120,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 2.5 million b/d.

The total income received by Iran from swap transactions from 1997 to 2009 amounted to about $880 million.

[grupo guitarlumber] 10/9/2016 14:25

Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 9

By Emil Ilgar – Trend:

Naftiran Intertrade Company Sàrl (NICO), a Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), reached an agreement with France’s Total to resume oil swap in the near future, Mehr reported Sep. 9.

According to the report, NICO and Total are preparing to sign an agreement to swap 160,000-200,000 barrels per day of oil to revive the swap operations from Caspian countries, which stopped six years ago.

Earlier, Fars news agency also reported that NICO is also finalizing the talks with Switzerland-based Vitol as well as British Petroleum to resume oil swap operations.

Under oil swap agreements, which started in 1997 and were in place for over 12 years, Iran received crude oil of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in the Neka port and delivered an equal volume to the clients of the same countries in Persian Gulf.

Iran says works are underway to increase the Neka port’s swap capacity from the current level of 120,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 2.5 million b/d.

The total income received by Iran from swap transactions from 1997 to 2009 amounted to about $880 million.

[grupo guitarlumber] 10/9/2016 10:32

By William Horobin

PARIS -- French oil major Total SA is taking full control of the Barnett Shale oil-and-gas leases in Texas that it shared with joint-venture partner Chesapeake Energy Corp., after the U.S. shale producer decided to exit the once-prolific gas field to shore up its finances.

Total said on Friday it is exercising rights to acquire a 75% share in the Barnett Shale assets to become the sole owner and operator of 215,000 partially developed acres of the field near Fort Worth in North Texas.

The move follows Chesapeake's agreement last month to pay $334 million to Williams Partners LP to get out of its pipeline contract with the pipeline operator in the Barnett Shale formation. At the time, Chesapeake said it was transferring its interests in the fields to Saddle Barnett Resources LLC, a private equity-backed company based in Dallas.

Total, which is pre-empting Saddle's deal, said its U.S. exploration and production unit will add $420 million to what Williams is receiving to achieve "a fully restructured, competitive gas-gathering agreement," in addition to paying $138 million to be released from three other contracts.

The company said it expects to complete the deal in the fourth quarter, subject to "third-party consent of the arrangement."

"With the new conditions created by the exit of Chesapeake and the associated restructuring of the midstream contracts, we believe that we can extract significant value from the substantial, well-located resource base of the play," Total E&P USA President José Ignacio Sanz said in a statement.

The Barnett Shale was once a big-producing gas field, but in recent years drilling for new wells has waned amid low natural gas prices. At the start of September, there were just three rigs drilling in the Barnett, compared with 202 rigs drilling in the Permian Basin of West Texas, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc., an oil-field service company in Houston.

Total's move, which could increase its relatively small output in the U.S., is part of a wider pivot the company is making to pump more natural gas than oil.

The company said the production from the Barnett fields that it will take over from Chesapeake stands at 65,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Total's U.S. production last year amounted to 89,000 barrels a day.

Total said its U.S. holdings include a 25% interest in the Chesapeake-operated Utica shale joint venture in Ohio. In the Gulf of Mexico, Total holds a 17% interest in the Tahiti field and a 33.3% interest in the Chinook field. The company has also teamed up with Cobalt International Energy to explore for oil in the deep offshore of the Gulf of Mexico.

Corrections & Amplifications: Total SA of France is buying oil-and gas leases and other energy assets in the Barnett Shale formation of North Texas from Chesapeake Energy Corp. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Total was buying all of the Barnett Shale that it didn't already control. (Sept. 9, 2016)

Write to William Horobin at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 10, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

[waldron] 09/9/2016 10:07

PARIS--French oil major Total SA is taking full control of the Barnett Shale in Texas after Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s recent decision to exit the once prolific gas field to clean up its finances.

Total said on Friday it is exercising its preemption right to acquire the 75% share in the Barnett Shale which it doesn't already own to become the sole owner and operator of the field.

The move follows Chesapeake's agreement last month to pay pipeline company Williams Partners LP $334 million in cash to get out of its pipeline contract with the firm in the Barnett.

Total said its Total E&P USA unit will top up Chesapeake's payment with $420 million to Williams for "a fully restructured, competitive gas-gathering agreement" in addition to paying $138 million to be released from three other contracts.

"With the new conditions created by the exit of Chesapeake and the associated restructuring of the midstream contracts, we believe that we can extract significant value from the substantial, well-located resource base of the play," Total E&P USA President José Ignacio Sanz said in a statement.

The Barnett Shale was once a big-producing gas field near Fort Worth in North Texas, but in recent years drilling for new wells has waned amid low natural gas prices. In August, there were four rigs drilling in the Barnett, compared with 177 rigs drilling in the Permian Basin of West Texas, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc., an oil-field service company in Houston.

Total's move could increase its relatively small output in the U.S.

Production from the Barnett currently stands at 65,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, Total said. The group's U.S. production last year amounted to 89,000 barrels a day.

Total said its U.S. holdings include a 25% interest in the Chesapeake-operated Utica shale joint venture in Ohio. In the Gulf of Mexico, Total holds a 17% interest in the Tahiti field and a 33.3% interest in the Chinook field. Total and Cobalt International Energy have tied up to explore for oil in the deep offshore Gulf of Mexico.

--Erin Ailworth and Josh Beckerman contributed to this article.

Write to William Horobin at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 09, 2016 04:05 ET (08:05 GMT)

[waldron] 07/9/2016 12:12

Total’s billion-dollar acquisition will allow it to compete with Tesla-SolarCity, says Lux Research

07 September 2016
French oil company Total, with energy storage firm Saft and SunPower in its portfolio, is the first oil “supermajor221; entering new areas of business including solar plus storage and distributed generation, Lux Research says.

Amid falling profits and long-term questions, global oil “supermajors” must follow in the footsteps of Total – which recently bought energy storage company Saft for $1 billion – and explore opportunities not only in battery but also solar and distributed generation, according to Lux Research.

“As Darwinism looms for the future of power, oil supermajors looking to evolve must choose among more expensive, broader battery players. But they should still act, as waiting longer or doing nothing, would be an even worse outcome,” said Cosmin Laslau, Lux Research Senior Analyst and lead author of the report titled, “Superpower Darwinism: What Big Oil Can and Cannot Do About Total’s Billion-Dollar Battery Move.”

“Worthwhile battery companies continue to gain value and build momentum with each passing day, as do other opportunities toward a distributed generation future,” he added. “Indeed, the recent Tesla-SolarCity merger highlights the increasingly high-stakes race to integrate the future pieces of power, which are underpinned by distributed solar and advanced energy storage.”

Lux Research analysts evaluated potential acquisitions for oil supermajors in the light of Total’s acquisition of Saft. Among their findings:

Samsung SDI, Toshiba, NEC are potential targets. Top battery-makers such as Panasonic, Hitachi and China’s BYD might be out of reach for most oil supermajors, given that each is a larger conglomerate valued in excess of $20 billion. But Samsung SDI, Toshiba and NEC are affordable targets, and more focused businesses too. Still, each will cost way more than the $1 billion Total paid for Saft – a transaction that today looks like a positive bargain.


Asia challenges loom for battery acquirers. Even though the battery business is a truly global one, most battery companies remain Asia-based, posing potential integration challenges for a major acquirer. Still, Korea’s LG Chem, for example, has a factory in the U.S., and NEC has a U.S. presence via its acquisition of A123 Systems’ energy storage division.


It’s not just the battery anymore. Total’s moves are not about the battery but also about solar and distributed generation. It bought a controlling stake in SunPower in 2011, years before it bought battery-maker Saft. It also has made smaller plays in distributed generation through Stem, Sunverge, Powerhive and Off-Grid Electric. Total’s approach has important lessons for other oil supermajors, and suggests it is no longer enough to buy a battery company. To make the most of the emerging opportunities, solar or wind is also key, as is being active in connective software and hardware.