BP, TotalEnergies, Chevron and other major energy companies are now turning to “cleaner” projects. Under pressure from their shareholders and activists, energy giants are abandoning their most polluting projects, and many smaller companies are rushing to fill the void, the Wall Street Journal notes in a lengthy article documenting trends in the energy market.

In Nigeria, smaller companies now own almost half of the oil and gas leasing companies. In Latin America, an independent company is exploring for oil in areas avoided by Occidental Petroleum and BP. In Asia, more specifically Myanmar, Chevron pulled out of a controversial gas project, and a little-known Canadian company agreed to buy a stake.

According to the Wall Street Journal, these moves show that smaller, more flexible companies are taking advantage of higher energy prices and opportunities left behind by large companies that are now turning to cleaner forms of energy or more profitable projects. But the same trend also shows something else: despite the efforts of major oil companies to reduce their carbon footprint, their flight from fossil fuel projects has little effect on greenhouse gas emissions overall, as these projects are taken over by other smaller companies.

Investments in new hydrocarbon projects, many of which are carried out by smaller and lesser-known companies, will cross the $100 billion mark this year, according to Rystad.

Source: WSJ