A member of Chevron Corp’s board of directors sent a tweet on Wednesday that questioned the future of the oil industry given the rise of renewable energy technologies.
“If #oil energy consumption is declining and #renewableenergy consumption is on the #rise, what does that mean for the future of the oil industry?” Dambisa Moyo, an economist and author who joined the oil company’s board in 2016, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
The tweet, deleted less than five hours after it was posted, was accompanied by two graphics produced by the financial television network CNBC. One showed oil consumption slipping from 2005 through 2015 and the other showed renewable energy consumption rising across the same period.
Chevron, Exxon Mobil Corp and other oil producers have come under increasing pressure to invest less in oil projects and more in solar, wind and other renewable energy technologies.
An active presence on Twitter with 189,000 followers, Moyo added several hashtags to her post that have been associated in the past with activists pushing for greater adoption of renewables by oil producers, including“#environment,”“#getsmarter” and“#happywarrior.”
Moyo could not be reached for additional comment.
Chevron said the tweet showed the diversity of thought amongst its leadership.“This simply demonstrates that Chevron’s board takes into account multiple points of view on the important topic of the future of energy,” Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said in an emailed statement.
Moyo, who tweets under the handle @dambisamoyo, is also a board member of Barclays Plc and Barrick Gold Corp.
John Watson, who retired as Chevron’s chairman and chief executive earlier this month, told Reuters last fall that he did not see demand for oil peaking in the foreseeable future.
The view is widely shared in the oil industry and leaders of the world’s biggest oil companies are not buying the argument that their traditional business faces any imminent threat from climate change policies or renewable technologies.
Chevron reported a quarterly profit earlier this month that fell far short of Wall Street’s expectations, denting its stock price.
The International Energy Agency said earlier this month it expects global oil demand to rise 1.4 million barrels per day this year.
By Ernest Scheyder
Source: Reuters
Private equity investor Cinven is acquiring MBCC Group’s admixture business from Swiss construction chemicals major Sika on the rebound. Earlier, the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had turned thumbs down on plans to sell the business to Ineos, citing antitrust concerns.
Air Liquide S.A. (Paris) announced the construction of an industrial scale ammonia (NH3) cracking pilot plant in the port of Antwerp, Belgium. When transformed into ammonia, hydrogen can be easily transported over long distances.
Huhtamaki receives a gold medal from EcoVadis on its sustainability performance – for the third year running. Its score places Huhtamaki in the top 4% of over 100,000 rated companies across the globe. EcoVadis is the world’s largest and most trusted business sustainability index.