Becoming Green Is Not an Easy Task For Oil Companies

Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM has revealed its new five-year climate change plan to be in line with the Paris Agreement reduction targets. But the reaction has been muted, as these small, yet meaningful, reductions put them more in line with Chevron CVX, which is not exactly a leader in this either.

Nonetheless, the plan reflects the current environment for oil and gas companies. They know they will have to evolve in order to survive.

One of the main issues troubling the energy sector is low oil and natural gas price, which is caused by the massive decrease in demand. This decline was caused by the economic slowdown, triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, this might not even be the biggest issue.

For years now, U.S. onshore production has been increasing. While OPEC has been decreasing production to balance the U.S. production, we still entered 2020 with more oil being produced than ever before.

And then there's the rise of renewable energy. Alternatives like solar and wind power are becoming more and more desirable than the older, carbon-based energy production. The popularity of startups in the electric vehicle industry this year is a clear sign that demand for gasoline will likely fall in the future.

Keeping in the mind the issues of the oil sector, investors' focus should be on the large well-diversified companies with strong financial positions, and both Chevron and Exxon fit that description. However, it seems that Chevron is in a comparatively better position, having overtaken Exxon as the largest U.S. oil company by market value in October. Although Chevron has taken on some additional debt, its debt-to-equity ratio only increased from 0.2 from the start of 2020 to 0.25 at the end of the third quarter. Overall, its balance sheet is stronger, so its position to keep increasing the dividend, as it already has for 33 straight years, seems firm.

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