Shell exited the Chinese power generation and trading markets effective end-2023, as it scales back its power business globally to focus on more profitable operations, the UK-based supermajor told Reuters on Wednesday.
Shell, however, is not abandoning its EV charging business in China, which it sees as a major growth market, a spokesperson for Shell told Reuters.
“We are selectively investing in power, focusing on delivering value from our power portfolio, which requires making difficult choices,” the supermajor said in a statement carried by Reuters.
Shell has exited several retail power markets in recent months as it pivots back to the much more profitable oil and gas business.
Last summer, Shell agreed to sell its retail home energy businesses in the UK and Germany to Octopus Energy Group, under a broader agreement with Octopus Energy to explore a potential international partnership in EV charging.
“This agreement follows the announcement during our Capital Markets Day to divest our home energy retail business in Europe,” Steve Hill, Executive Vice-President, Shell Energy, said at the time.
“To drive performance, discipline and simplification, we are prioritising countries, projects, and routes to market where we can deliver the most value.”
In March this year, Shell reaffirmed its ambitions to be a net-zero energy business by 2050 but eased its carbon intensity target for 2030 as it has shifted away from clean power sales to retail customers. The eased emissions target is the result of Shell prioritizing value over volume in power, with a focus on select markets and segments and selling more power to commercial customers, and less to retail customers.
“Given this focus on value, we expect lower total growth of power sales to 2030, which has led to an update to our net carbon intensity target,” Shell said in its updated Energy Transition Strategy 2024.
Shell’s CEO Wael Sawan has said that reducing global oil and gas production would be “dangerous and irresponsible” as the world still desperately needs those hydrocarbons.