Shell sees itself as an energy services company rather than an oil and gas operation, he explains. While it has a strong base in oil and gas, it also has a deep understanding of the chemicals business. Meanwhile, other business streams are constantly evaluated for viability.
“We have a very, very strong oil and gas base and that part of the company will remain important for many years ahead,” Mr Bentham says. “But new business developments will go on top of that as these areas eventually diminish. So, we will be a part of broader transitions.”
Already, the business has changed. The gas side of the equation overtook oil some time ago. Likewise, the chemicals side will only strengthen as the world ceaselessly seeks efficiencies requiring lightweight solutions and more insulation. In time, there will be solar. Shell is already one of the top marketers of biofuels.
It is for reasons such as these that Shell Wind Energy was founded in the 1990s. Mr Bentham himself used to run Shell Hydrogen, a division raised from the insight that hydrogen could be an important low-carbon transport fuel where the only emission from vehicles is water vapour.
A recent Shell study concluded that in 2050, 113 million fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) could save up to 68 million tonnes of fuel and almost 200 million tonnes of carbon emissions, making a significant contribution to reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector.
“We’ve taken all these areas of business and brought them together pointedly in our New Energies Business,” says Mr Bentham. “It’s run by the same person- a board-level director – who runs our integrated gas business.”
How fast the other businesses grow depends not only on Shell, but also how policy evolves.
A Shell-led consortium that includes Mitsubishi announced in December that it would develop a massive 700MW North Sea wind farm off the south coast as the Netherlands moves away from coal and nuclear power plants. The €300 million (S$480 million) investment came on the heels of the Netherlands concluding an “Energy Accord” between government, business, unions and environmental groups to build sustainable energy platforms.
Still, Mr Bentham says it will be a while before wind and solar attain “Shell scale” even as the direction is clear: Already, solar heat is used in a Shell joint venture in Oman to generate steam that’s used in the industrial process. Likewise, people don’t perceive Shell as a power company. Yet it is the second biggest power trading firm in North America.
At the end of the day, the issue is about providing reliable energy to customers. As for the exact mix of that energy, it is for the consumer to decide.
That said, oil and gas are going to persist as components of the mix.
“It will be a long time before you see an electric-powered jumbo jet,” says Mr Bentham. “We see demand for oil growing through the 2020s before plateauing, perhaps in the early 2030s.”
Two years ago, Shell pulled out of Arctic exploration after spending more than US$7 billion (S$9 billion) in the project, perhaps because it was undermining its efforts to influence the climate change debate. The growing number of alternatives, such as “tight oil” – as shale is called – also influenced the decision.
Mr Bentham says a decision like that always has a “lot of fingerprints” on it. “It was a resource with a particular kind of profile that didn’t match the profile we were trying to build.”
Silicon Valley car company Tesla just unveiled an electric car for the mass market. In South Korea, the island of Jeju says it will go all-electric by 2030. New Delhi has similar plans. How does Shell view all this?
Mr Bentham says the deeper “electrification” of the economy is inevitable, starting with light vehicles and light industry.
Heavier vehicles will probably be electrified through the hydrogen fuel cell. But heavy industry will require high temperature furnaces and processes where oil and gas will still be key. What’s more, in non-OECD countries, fully half of the residential heating today comes from burning dirty traditional fuels such as dung, wood and peat.
The transition to clean commercial fuel – in whatever form it takes – will keep demand alive for years to come.
Still, the deployment of solar for producing electricity is taking place at the faster end of Shell’s scenarios, he concedes, crediting it to a “virtuous cycle between policy, technology and development”. On the other hand, the fuel cell has not progressed quite to plan although the technology has matured. One reason is that car manufacturers with the technology have not moved into mass production yet.
“At this point it is in a valley of death,” he says. “You have to build up production to bring costs down and the lowering of attention to it in the last 10 years means the cost reductions have not been locked in yet.”
Shell is working with the German government to set up 200 Shell-funded hydrogen filling stations across the country, potentially rising to 400 stations. It is the company’s way of contributing to the transport infrastructure.
“You help catalyse things but need to have the corporate humility that you are just part of this,” he says. “President (Harry) Truman used to say it is amazing what you can achieve if you do not care who gets the credit.”
With the urban population poised to double in the next 40 years, which world cities are getting things right on the energy front?
Mr Bentham, who sits on Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority international expert panel, names the city-state as one that scores high on several fronts, including its ability for flexible planning. He also credits it for being more open to new ideas than it used to be.
“It is my favourite urban powerhouse,” he says, contrasting it with Detroit in the United States. “Back in the 1960s, when Singapore was one of the poorer nations, Detroit used to be one of the richest cities in the world. It is now where it is. Although green shoots are growing, 30 per cent of the city is derelict and 50 per cent of its population are functionally illiterate.”
What drives him, excuse the pun?
“I recognised in my heart the need to spread a decent quality of life from a minority to the majority,” he says. “I believe it can be done.”
He pulls his American-born wife, Mary, into the conversation.
“It comes from servant leadership and from our Christian faith,” says Mrs Bentham. “Most of the people we know (at The Hague) ride bicycles, which is fantastic. But for some, this is because they can’t afford anything else. We have family on welfare. My sister and her husband live in an HDB flat in Ang Mo Kio. So, you are aware of being a steward for people who don’t have a voice.”
Perhaps it all goes back to Everton as well in some ways.
Created as a department of the football club in 1988, Everton in the Community is one of the most lauded charities for sports and other activities, involving a range of people in the Merseyside area, from young offenders to the autistic to those confronting racism and homophobia.
Leaves you thinking: Not every British battle is won on the playing fields of upper crust Eton!