Where is Energy Capital Going?

In episode six of Capital in Transition, Harry Benham and Mark Campanale look back across the series and trace the thread running through every conversation: capital, and where it is flowing.

Two divides are reshaping the energy landscape: within oil and gas, listed majors have become capital-return businesses, prioritising dividends and share buybacks, as their reserve lives shrink. National oil companies, by contrast, now account for around 60% of fossil fuel investment and some 55% of production. And beyond oil and gas, the manufactured energy economy of solar, batteries, EVs and grids now attracts $2.2 trillion in investment each year. That’s twice the amount flowing into fossil fuels, yet listed oil and gas companies barely feature in this new system.

They also discuss why shrinking reserve lives matter to bondholders, what the latest Statistical Review of World Energy reveals about renewables and demand growth, and whether energy could follow mobile telephony towards deflation and abundance.