13 July 2015, News Wires – The US upstream affiliate of Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell is reportedly considering dropping the word “oil” from its name in a bid to stay in line with the times.
Bloomberg quoted Shell Oil president Marvin Odum as saying the name of the unit “is a little old-fashioned”, as the company increases its focus on natural gas and other energy alternatives.
“At one point we’ll probably do something about that,” Odum said of the name during the Toronto Global Forum.
Shell has been producing more gas than oil across its global operations for more than two years.
Its $70 billion bid for BG Group, which continus to clear regulatory hurdles, would make Shell the world’s largest non-state gas producer.
“Climate change is real,” Bloomberg quoted Odum as saying. “We spend a fair amount of time as an executive committee, as a board actually, looking at what that wider swath of investment opportunities out there are, including the alternative and renewable options.”
However, Odum added, it will take a long time before alternatives make oil and gas irrelevant, despite the increasing profitability of cleaner technologies.