Thursday, August 30, 2007

Oil companies should behave both as ‘corporations’ and as ‘citizens’; both for their ‘shareholders’ and ‘the planet’!

Try asking the $233.3 billion giant BP this & it would perhaps flash its sparkling new logo & utter, “We’ve re-christened ourself to BP! – Beyond Petroleum!” It has earmarked a walloping $8 billion as investments (through 2015) to its alternative energy division. The $175.1 billion oil-engine Chevron, too, pledged $5 billion in renewable technologies (during 2002-2009). Then there’re giants Shell & ConocoPhillips, which have already invested a mammoth $1.68 billion on bio-fuels till date.

So, while these global giants are donning the ‘Go Green’ hat, the champion – Exxon Mobil which re-wrote history by scripting a heart-stopping $39.5 billion in profits in 2006, begs to differ! Its argument as Rex Tillerson, CEO, Exxon Mobil puts it, is “to go in and invest like everybody else... Why would a shareholder want to own Exxon Mobil? We’re only going to invest shareholder money where they can get the returns they expect with Exxon!” Even forecasts by US Fed’s Climate Change Program (which concludes that fossil fuels will supply a strapping 80% of total energy needs by 2100) & EIA’s Energy 2007’s outlook (stating that natural fuels will provide 80% of energy even in 2030) support Rex’s strategy to not jump illogically into renewables.

B&E,4ps & IIPM Publication

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source: IIPM Editorial, 2007
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative