Totally different? Oil giant to rebrand as Total Energies
French oil giant Total today said it would change its name as the firm looks to reduce the share of sales it derives from oil products over the next decade.
The supermajor will rebrand as Total Energies, it said today, as it seeks to expand its renewable energy presence.
Central to this is a plan to cut oil products to a third of its sales from over half now.
Chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said: “By proposing this name change to shareholders, we’re also fundamentally asking them to approve this change in strategy”.
The announcement came as the firm, one of the seven oil supermajors, said it had suffered a $7.2bn loss in 2020 amid the collapse in oil prices.
Peers such as Shell, BP and Exxon all reported similarly huge losses last week.
Unlike its big oil counterparts, Total’s earnings for the fourth quarter came in ahead of expectations at $1.3bn, helped in part by the recovery in oil prices.
Total shift
This year, the firm said that it would look to spend 20 per cent of its investment budget on renewables, up from 15 per cent last year.
Total added that it had already spent $2bn on such projects in 2021.
It is one of a number of oil giants which are beginning to long process of switching away from hydrocarbons to clean energy sources.
Last year BP laid out a whole new business model for its transition, while Shell will on Thursday present a new strategy for achieving its net zero ambitions by 2050.