German oil lobby seeks net zero CO2 emissions by 2045

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s oil industry will aim for net zero carbon emissions by 2045, moving away from fossil fuel to low carbon products such as biofuels and renewable energy-derived hydrogen, the industry’s lobby group en2x said on Wednesday.

“At the end of the process the mineral oil industry will no longer be a mineral oil industry,” Fabian Ziegler, chairman of en2x and chief executive of Shell Deutschland GmbH, said at a virtual press conference.

Oil from fossil fuel met 32% of German primary energy demand with the rest met by natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewable energies, data from industry group AGEB showed.

The en2x target comes after ambitious plans presented last week by the incoming Berlin government to step up climate protection efforts entailing far-reaching reforms for the utility sector – which accounts for nearly a third of total carbon pollution – and across manufacturing industries, buildings, transport and agriculture.

Of mineral oil products, some 60% go into transport, 20% into heating and the rest mostly chemical industry purposes.

Ziegler said refineries will aim to switch to producing and using in internal processes green hydrogen, petrol stations will adopt electric charging points and hydrogen for heavy vehicles in their product mix.

The industry was developing synthetic fuels for ships and airplanes and decarbonised fuels for chemicals production.

The industry lobby recently renamed itself en2x, the association of fuels and energy, to reflect its shift from fossil fuel-related activities to a new variety of energy products and usage options. Its members include BP Europe, Esso Deutschland and Austria’s OMV.

It groups big oil members of the legacy fossil-fuels association, Mineraloelwirtschaftsverband, that import crude, run refineries and petrol stations. It aligns them with the former IWO institute for oil heating.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)