BP BP Plc

By Giulia Petroni and Adria Calatayud

Europe's top four oil and gas companies by market capitalization have released their spending outlook for 2023, with one of them planning to boost investment and the other three giving a range that--at its midpoint--would be higher than that of last year. Here's a look at their spending plans:

--Shell PLC's cash capital expenditure outlook for 2023 amounts to $23 billion-$27 billion, compared with $24.83 billion in 2022 and an average of $21.41 billion between 2017 and 2021. In 2025, Shell expects around 50% of its total expenditure--which comprises cash capital expenditure and operating expenditure--to be on low-carbon energy such as biofuels, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage, among others.

--TotalEnergies SE targets net investments of between $16 billion and $18 billion this year, including $5 billion toward low-carbon energies, compared with $16.30 billion for 2022. Over the 2017-21 period, its net investments averaged $14.19 billion. At its strategy presentation last year, TotalEnergies said net investments would be in the range of $14 billion to $18 billion in the 2022-25 period, of which about a third will be allocated to carbon-free energies and carbon footprint reduction programs and the rest for liquefied natural gas and other low-emission oil projects.

--BP PLC targets capital expenditure of $16 billion-$18 billion this year compared with $16.33 billion in 2022, of which $1.02 billion was allocated toward low-carbon energy. BP's average capex, including inorganic spending, over the 2017-21 period was $17.85 billion. For the 2024-30 period, the British oil-and-gas major expects capex in the range of $14 billion-$18 billion, including inorganic capital expenditure which is reported on a cash basis. BP plans to spend more than 40% of capex in what it calls transition growth engines by 2025 and around 50% by 2030, with earnings being mainly driven by bioenergy, electric-vehicle charging, renewables and hydrogen.

--Equinor ASA expects organic capital expenditure to be in the range of $10 billion-$11 billion in 2023, from $8.1 billion last year. Organic capex averaged $9.04 billion between 2017 and 2021. Between 2024 and 2026, organic capex should average around $13 billion a year. The energy major--which is 67% owned by the Norwegian state--plans to allocate around $23 billion gross investments in renewables between 2021 and 2026, and to increase the share of gross capex for renewables and low-carbon solutions to more than 50% by 2030 from around 4% in 2020.

Write to Giulia Petroni at giulia.petroni@wsj.com and to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 10, 2023 09:40 ET (14:40 GMT)

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