Moeve (former Cepsa) is leaving it. Oil, not tobacco. As in Sabina's song, the company controlled by the Mubadala fund of Abu Dhabi (61.5%) and Carlyle Group (38.5%) believes that the day has come to consider the future of the business very seriously. In the words of its CEO Maarten Wetselaar, director of Shell for a quarter of a century, Moeve is transformed into “another type of organization, in which most of its profits will come from sustainable activities at the end of the decade.” It is not something exceptional. All the major oil companies now assure that they are committed to sustainability and renewables. They do so amidst the skepticism of environmental organizations and political criticism – in the case of the United States – that accuses the oil giants of planting pseudo-sustainable projects to block any progress in the fight against climate change. Moeve is serious, company sources maintain. As it is not a listed company, it can bet on transformation with less pressure and go one step further than its older sisters. In the face of skepticism and criticism, Moeve exhibits great proof of its turn in the business: it has sold 70% of the crude oil production assets from 2022. Last year it sold the exploration and production area in the United Arab Emirates to TotalEnergies; continued with the extraction fields in Colombia, sold to Cedco, a subsidiary of SierraCol; those in Peru (Cepsa Peruanas SA), sold to the Canadian company PetroTalCo and the gas business in the peninsula – butane and propane -, sold to the Chilean company Copec. In Mexico, it has renounced the three marine exploratory blocks in the Tampico-Misantla basin.More. The company is underway to transform the 2,000 service stations on the peninsula, with special focus on fast charging points for electric vehicles —200 already connected; builds a new 2G biofuels plant—made from waste—in Palos de la Frontera (Huelva), with an associated investment of 1.2 billion; develops 2 GW of equivalent green hydrogen production capacity in the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley in 2030 and invests 130 million in the company's image change, a key point. The Landor and Publicis agencies have been in charge of the transfer.
Ambitious goals
“With the entire sector competing within the framework of sustainability,” explains Dimas Gorostarzu, creative director of Harmon, “the repositioning [de Moeve-Cepsa] “It should reinforce relevance and credibility among regular audiences and generate attraction among younger audiences.” The entire list of actions is part of the Positive Motion strategy until 2030, with 8 billion in investment and ambitious objectives. The goal is to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 55% compared to 2019 by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.More informationSo Moeve leaves it. But little by little. The oil company maintains significant positions to extract oil in Algeria and Suriname (South America). In Algeria—in alliance with the state-owned Sonatrach—it manages crude oil fields in the Berkine basin and gas fields in Timimoun, while in Suriname it participates with APA and Petronas in a crude oil field in deep waters of the Atlantic. Environmentalists view oil company advertisements, including Moeve's, with suspicion. “They are smoke bombs,” says Javier Andaluz, head of Energy and Climate at Ecologistas en Acción. “It is more important to import [de petróleo] than production. And the basis of the business continues to be gas stations and fuel distribution. They talk about substitution with biofuels, but the reality is that there is not enough production to replace traditional fuels and not all the projects they promote have a neutral impact,» he adds. A look at Moeve's accounts helps to situate the transformation process of the company. The heart of the business, the one that pumps the most profits into the coffers, is the energy area. In the first half of the year, it contributed 54% of the results, as accounted for by the company—adjusted gross profits—without taking into account variations in the value of reserves. Gross profit stood at 1,481 million euros until September. The key division, energy, is divided into four areas: mobility, with 2,000 gas stations in Spain and Portugal after the purchase of Ballenoil's low-cost stations; refining, with the San Roque and La Rábida plants, which account for 30% of the country's refining capacity; hydrogen and biofuels —the big bet in the medium term, with 3,000 million of investment planned in Huelva and Cádiz— and, lastly, the purchase and sale (trading) of crude oil.More informationThe extraction and production of oil, where Moeve is releasing ballast at an accelerated rate, it only represents a third of the business. But it is the touchstone of the transformation process. The Financial Times assured in this regard that Moeve's plan «will help demonstrate the extent to which Europe's oil and gas companies can transform and whether they can help the EU meet its goal of net zero emissions by 2050.» “I would like to believe it because it is a necessity to get out of fossil fuels,” says Juantxo López de Uralde, Podemos deputy and president of the Congressional Ecological Transition commission, “but, unfortunately, and taking into account the role that the oil companies with their lobbying role, it is very difficult to believe that there is really a sincere intention to change.” The Spanish Association of Petroleum Products Operators (AOP) sees things differently. “The refining and fuel industry has incorporated the purpose of decarbonization and emissions reduction as its own, for which it has undertaken profound transformations. And it has allocated billion-dollar investments with the aim of advancing towards the refinery of the future,» the organization points out. While Moeve leaves it, the company «has as a priority three aspects with the same level of importance,» says the Kutxabank Investment report. referring to the first semester: “Maintain your solvency grade at investment grade [S&P y Fitch la mantiene en la favorable BBB- para una deuda de 2.493 millones]carry out its investment plan and remunerate its shareholders in a reasonable manner.” In recent years, Cepsa has distributed profits generously (583 million in 2022 and 850 million in 2023) supported by the sale of assets in Abu Dhabi and the good refining environment. “In the coming years,” predicts the aforementioned report, “given the significant investments planned, we will probably see a more prudent dividend environment.” From the company's point of view, the investment horizon is clearer because the tax on energy companies designed by the Government has gone into limbo. Wetselaar has been one of the most critical of the tax. Moeve paid 566 million in 2023 and 2024 for the tribute. Since it does most of its business in Spain, the tax has a greater relative impact on its income statement compared to companies with large international operations. “The parliamentary debate is still alive, we remain attentive to see how it takes shape,” company sources point out. “We will continue with the planned investment plans if the appropriate circumstances arise from the point of view of fiscal and regulatory stability, which allow the projects to be made viable.” The final goal: wake up and see that the dinosaur is no longer there.
