Shell is getting into the utiliy business., page-8

Hi All4.

I don't agree on that one actually. The oil business is being disrupted big time. We won't stop using oil for a long time yet but demand will definitely start to reduce soon. I recall reading somewhere a while back that it would only take a reduction of a few million barrels per day to really damage the oil market. Remember that oil is only selling for half it's peak price of a few years ago anyway. Oil companies across the world made dramatic cutbacks since as it simply isn't as profitable as it was. And that's still with OPEC manipulating prices.
Now that it is pretty obvious that renewables are a thing I reckon Shell has realized that while they still have the financial capacity to do so, they'd better reinvent themselves a bit.

I agree with you on battery technology. We will have a largely distributed power system in the future however I believe we still need power grids and commercial power supplies. Renewables will not only rely on storage but they will also rely on renewables in other areas for support during low wind/sun periods so they will need a grid and commercial backup to some degree.

For sure the electricity market and the oil market is going to change and we're not sure how it will pan out. But one thing we do know is that these big oil companies are ruthless and clever in business so I don't think they'll go down without a fight.