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If you take every super major oil producer today and say they have to produce half as much oil what happens? They sell off half their assets to smaller oil com

If you take every super major oil producer today and say they have to produce half as much oil what happens? They sell off half their assets to smaller oil companies. But you still have the same number of wells pumping oil/gas. I just don't see how this helps anyone, it's a silly PR win. Shell didn't wrought any economic harm on their customers. We as a society have failed to regulate the consumption of oil/gas (as well as all other sources of CO2 emission), this is not directly the oil/gas companies fault, we're just using them as a scape goat. We might as well blame car companies, construction companies, power companies, steel manufacturing companies who are all just as if not more responsible for CO2 emissions.

epistasis 5y ago
The underlying assumption in this scenario is that global demand for fossil fuels without carbon capture and sequestration will remain constant. This is certainly not the case. Shell can either start capturing carbon to lower their emissions, or perhaps they can sell to smaller firms. But those smaller firms are now under the same gun that Shell currently is. So investors in these smaller firms risk losing everything as well. Already it is getting far far more difficult for fossil fuel companies to raise money for new extraction. Their stock prices have already taken massive hits. Capital sees the writing on the wall, as does every single fossil fuel exec. It's not a matter of if extraction stops, but when. Many thought that there could be one more round of exploration, but this court decision is just one more huge hurdle for actually extracting anything from new exploration. The tides are turning, we have alternatives to emissions now, the only question is if when we switch.
- JamesBarney 5y ago
  You are arguing the very long term prospects for oil and gas aren't great. I agree. But that has little to do with whether or not this case will have any impact on oil and gas extraction. It's just a PR move, which won't affect the number of barrels pumped out of the ground each year.
  - epistasis 5y ago
    I'm not quite sure what you mean by "just a PR move" since this has strong legal implications with a timeline for one of the big players. Shell has been dealt a major legal blow, and precedent has been set for all the smaller players. This will have big impacts for financing future fossil fuel extraction, because all the financiers see what's happened here. This has major implications, there's no PR anywhere near this.
    - JamesBarney 5y ago
      It might have small impacts on drilling financing in the Netherlands.

epistasis 5y ago

The underlying assumption in this scenario is that global demand for fossil fuels without carbon capture and sequestration will remain constant. This is certainly not the case. Shell can either start capturing carbon to lower their emissions, or perhaps they can sell to smaller firms. But those smaller firms are now under the same gun that Shell currently is. So investors in these smaller firms risk losing everything as well. Already it is getting far far more difficult for fossil fuel companies to raise money for new extraction. Their stock prices have already taken massive hits. Capital sees the writing on the wall, as does every single fossil fuel exec. It's not a matter of if extraction stops, but when. Many thought that there could be one more round of exploration, but this court decision is just one more huge hurdle for actually extracting anything from new exploration. The tides are turning, we have alternatives to emissions now, the only question is if when we switch.

JamesBarney 5y ago
You are arguing the very long term prospects for oil and gas aren't great. I agree. But that has little to do with whether or not this case will have any impact on oil and gas extraction. It's just a PR move, which won't affect the number of barrels pumped out of the ground each year.
- epistasis 5y ago
  I'm not quite sure what you mean by "just a PR move" since this has strong legal implications with a timeline for one of the big players. Shell has been dealt a major legal blow, and precedent has been set for all the smaller players. This will have big impacts for financing future fossil fuel extraction, because all the financiers see what's happened here. This has major implications, there's no PR anywhere near this.
  - JamesBarney 5y ago
    It might have small impacts on drilling financing in the Netherlands.