Oil & Gas joint venture points to different strategies for different energy subsectors

As announced earlier today, the UK subsidiaries of Equinor and Shell are to combine their UK offshore oil and gas assets, with the new company (which will be based in Aberdeen) set to be the UK North Sea’s biggest independent producer. 

The energy sector continues to evolve, and so this represents an interesting development in the sector.

Obviously, both Equinor and Shell have significant investments in other energy subsectors and it was interesting to see Reuters report that, while the companies are joining forces with their oil & gas assets, each will retain their respective wind, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, power generation, battery storage and gas storage assets.  This perhaps points to a difference in approach going forward between oil & gas (particularly in relation to the UKCS) in comparison to energy transition technologies.