TotalEnergies SE (TTE)

[eFinanceMarkets]

WSJ: Total CEO sees electricity sales as key part of company's future

Betting that demand will peak in the next few decades, Total (TOT -0.1%) CEO Patrick Pouyanné tells WSJ he wants to turn the company into one of the world’s biggest suppliers of electricity, or what he calls “the energy of the 21st century.”

More than any other oil major, TOT sees electricity as a hedge against oil’s eventual decline, and the CEO sees a large piece of its business eventually selling electricity to homeowners and businesses, some generated by natural gas it has extracted and some from solar panels and battery packs.

By 2035, Pouyanné says 20% of TOT’s energy output will be low-carbon energy such as electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar; the company recently created a “gas, renewables and power” reporting segment, which in 2016 earned ~5% of TOT’s $9.42B net operating income.

Pouyanné says TOT remains “first an oil and gas company,” but that some investors feel the company needs a diversification plan if governments and the public increasingly demand cleaner energy, and "we are trying to bring them some answers."