What are the chemical strategic transformations of international oil giants?

1、 ExxonMobil values "high-performance" chemicals and actively develops an "integrated" strategy

ExxonMobil is the world's largest non-governmental oil and gas producer, headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It has production facilities and sales products worldwide, and is engaged in oil and gas exploration on six continents. It is a leading player in many aspects of the energy and petrochemical industries.

ExxonMobil's global business mainly includes oil exploration, natural gas extraction, petrochemical production, lubricant production, power generation, and other businesses, with oil related businesses accounting for the majority of its business share. In order to comply with the global trend of petrochemical development, ExxonMobil has been phasing out outdated businesses since 2000. The number of refineries has decreased from 43 to 21 in 2021, with an average refining capacity of 12 million tons per year, which is 75% or more higher than the global refining industry.

ExxonMobil is still actively developing its "integrated" business, which occupies a primary position in its globalization strategy. At present, ExxonMobil has a total of 16 integrated refining and chemical bases in North America, Europe, and the Middle East, and its product variety and industrial chain competitiveness are globally leading.

In terms of chemical production business, ExxonMobil has accelerated its layout in the field of new materials, emphasizing high-performance chemicals and high-performance plastic products, actively investing in and innovating high-performance polypropylene materials, polymer materials for lightweight automotive use, and high-performance special engineering plastic materials. Its material field is also at the forefront globally.

2、 Shell focuses more on natural gas and integration strategy, focusing on the development of bio based new materials

According to Ping Tou Ge, Shell is an international energy and chemical group headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands. It is the world's largest lubricant producer and supplier. Shell lubricants have a global market share of 13.4%, with a total of 61 lubricant blending plants and 10 base oil production plants worldwide.

In order to actively transform its corporate development strategy, Shell launched a new business strategy in February 2021- "Empowering Progress", actively reshaping its business structure, using natural gas integration and refining products as transformation support businesses, and marketing, low-carbon fuel and renewable energy solutions (such as electricity and hydrogen) as future growth businesses.

Over the past 15 years, Shell has actively phased out outdated refineries, significantly reducing the number of global refineries from 51 to 13, reducing refining capacity from 220 million tons/year to 110 million tons/year, and reducing the number of global chemical plants from 133 to 10 while ensuring regional and raw material supply balance. And Shell plans to reduce traditional fuel production by 55% compared to 2020 by 2030.

At the same time, Shell is also vigorously developing biofuels, such as bioethanol, bio aviation kerosene, and low-carbon natural gas products. It plans to increase its low-carbon fuel production by 8 times compared to 2020 by 2030, and the proportion of low-carbon fuel sales in its total transportation fuel sales will increase from 3% to more than 10%.

In order to achieve the development goals of low-carbon fuels and biofuels, Shell is actively seeking technological progress and increasing technological investment. Currently, its research focuses on refining process technology, catalysts, and new product development. The China R&D Center focuses on continuous research and development and breakthroughs in products and technologies such as passenger car lubricants, heavy-duty engine oils, transmission fluids, special lubricants, and greases.

3、 Saudi Aramco focuses on cooperation with emerging markets, emphasizing technological innovation and global potential for company acquisitions

According to Baidu Baike, Saudi Aramco is the world's largest oil production company and the world's sixth largest oil refining enterprise. Its headquarters are located in Saudi Arabia, mainly engaged in oil exploration, development, production, refining, transportation, and sales. It has the world's largest onshore and offshore oil fields. In May 2022, Saudi Aramco surpassed American technology giant Apple in the stock market to become the world's highest company by market value.

In order to comply with the trend of globalization and reduce the share and proportion of oil business, Saudi Aramco actively develops its own refining and chemical integration, and on the other hand, increases its investment in emerging markets. According to relevant news reports, the business scope of Saudi Aramco investment includes fuels, chemicals, electricity, as well as pipelines, transportation, and ports. We have cooperative relationships with companies such as Sabiq, Sumitomo, Dow, Langsheng, Fujian Refining and Chemical, and North China Huajin.

Saudi Aramco's investment in technology ranks among the top in the world. According to relevant news reports, Saudi Aramco is increasing technological innovation, such as improving the utilization rate of crude oil, reducing energy consumption, and increasing product production. In addition, actively developing diversified raw materials and high value-added product technologies, continuously exploring new products, such as collaborating with engineering companies Sieby and Chevron Rums to develop crude oil thermal cracking to chemical (TCTC) technology, with a conversion rate of up to 70%; Collaborating with Axens and Technip FMC to develop the crude oil catalytic cracking to chemical (CCTC) process, with a conversion rate of 60% -80%, are the main measures and directions for actively responding to the transformation of the chemical industry chain.

Saudi Aramco's current main investment focus is on investing in emerging markets, such as the acquisition of larger fully spherical enterprises, especially startups with strategic technologies and high growth prospects, such as investing in Novomer's polyol technology, Silurian's methane oxidation coupling (OCM) to ethylene technology, Airborne Oil&Gas's thermoplastic composite pipe (TCP) technology, and so on. This series of investments is based on Saudi Aramco's optimistic outlook on the development of global emerging markets and adjustments to its own corporate strategic transformation.

The transformation direction of other global oil giants is also: BP plans to reduce methane intensity to 0.2% by 2025, and plans to reduce its net carbon footprint by 20% by 2030 compared to 2016, eliminating all torches. The plan is to achieve zero net carbon emissions by 2050, with a net carbon footprint reduction of about 50% compared to 2016. The main focus is to increase measures to reduce carbon footprint and plan to become a global new energy comprehensive service provider. Total has achieved significant strategic transformation by reducing global carbon emissions and carbon footprint, planning to become a global electricity sales company in the future.