Large oil companies sold 198 billion U.S. dollars in assets in 5 years

According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) on August 11, the world's largest international oil company (IOC) sold more than $198 billion in assets between 2015 and 2020, which is more than four times the investment in clean energy technology.

Proceeds from the sale of assets are used to invest in new fossil fuel projects, repay debts or pay dividends. Earlier, oil prices were weak, falling from a high of nearly 115 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2014 to below 28 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2020.

European international oil companies are clearly different from their American counterparts. Statoil (Equinor) is the only company whose clean energy investment exceeds the proceeds from asset sales.

Although Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips have high asset sales, their total investment in clean energy is only US$757 million, accounting for only 1% of the divestment proceeds. Most of the assets sold are located in Europe, which indicates that investor and policy pressures may push international oil companies to make a decision to sell assets. BNEF predicts that the decarbonization strategy will result in more asset sales proceeds turning to clean technology.