Cepsa, which was born as the Spanish Petroleum Company in 1929 and is owned by Abu Dhabi fund Mubadala and the Carlyle GroupNew Chief Executive Maarten Wetselaar, who took over this year after 25 years at Shell, wants sustainable businesses including low-carbon jet fuel and renewably-produced hydrogen to generate more than half the group's core earnings from by 2030, from around 14% in 2022.
Cepsa is considering strategic alternatives for the chemicals business, a process Wetselaar said "is ongoing with all options still on the table", but added: "We are not in such a process for E&P at the moment." The company wants to make the most of a "historic opportunity," Wetselaar said, developing southern Spain's wind and solar resources and building plants with a combined capacity of 7 gigawatts , roughly equivalent to seven nuclear plants.
Overall, the plan aims to "help strengthen Europe's energy security and independence," Wetselaar said. Cepsa has high hopes for so-called green hydrogen, produced by passing renewably-produced electricity through water to split the element from oxygen, a nascent sector that the European Union sees as a way to cut emissions, especially from heavy industry.Cepsa said it aims to install production capacity to produce green hydrogen for import and export between Europe, Africa and the Middle East equivalent to 2 GW.