* Carbon Tracker says 18 new projects "deep out of themoney"
* Companies risk "wasting" $2.2 trillion by 2030
* Oil majors say investment needed to meet Asian demand
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Major oil companies have approved$50 billion of projects since last year that will not beeconomically viable if governments implement the Paris Agreementon climate change, think-tank Carbon Tracker said in a reportpublished on Friday.
The analysis found that investment plans by Royal DutchShell, BP and ExxonMobil among othercompanies will not be compatible with the 2015 Paris Agreement,which aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
"Every oil major is betting heavily against a 1.5 degreeCelsius world and investing in projects that are contrary to theParis goals," said report co-author Andrew Grant, a formernatural resources analyst at Barclays.
Big oil and gas companies have welcomed the U.N.-backedParis Agreement, in which governments agreed to curb greenhousegas emissions enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degreesCelsius, or "well below" 2 degrees Celsius by the end of thecentury.
Scientists view 1.5 degrees Celsius as a tipping point whereclimate impacts such as sea-level rise, natural disasters,forced migration, failed harvests and deadly heatwaves willrapidly start to intensify if it is breached.
Carbon Tracker's analysis, co-authored by Mike Coffin, aformer geologist at BP, found that 18 newly approved oil and gasprojects worth $50 billion could be left "deep out of the money"in a lower carbon world.
The projects include Shell's $13 billion liquefied naturalgas (LNG) Canada LNG project, a $4.3 billion oilfield expansionproject in Azerbaijan owned by BP, Exxon, Chevron andEquinor, and a $1.3 billion deepwater project inAngola operated by BP, Exxon, Chevron, Total andEquinor.
The report also concluded that oil and gas companies risk"wasting" $2.2 trillion by 2030 on new projects if governmentsapply stricter curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.
Previous reports on the implications of climate change foroil and gas companies by Carbon Tracker and other researchershave contributed to a wave of investor pressure on majors toshow that their investments are aligned with the Paris goals.
While some companies including Shell, BP, Total and Equinorhave increased spending on renewable energy and introducedcarbon reduction targets, the sector says it needs to continueinvesting in new projects to meet future demand for oil and gasas Asian economies expand.
Shell said in a statement that it has set out an "ambition"to halve net carbon emissions by 2050 "in step with society asit moves towards meeting the aims of Paris."
"As the energy system evolves, so is our business, toprovide the mix of products that our customers need," Shellsaid.
BP said its strategy to produce low cost and low carbon oiland gas was in line with the International Energy Agency(IEA)forecasts and the Paris agreement.
"All of this is aimed at evolving BP from an oil and gasfocused company to a much broader energy company so that we arebest equipped to help the world get to net zero while meetingrising energy demand," the company said in a statement.
Exxon, Chevron, Equinor and Total did not reply to requestsfor comment.
Nevertheless, the latest Carbon Tracker report said the bigoil and gas companies spent at least 30% of their investmentlast year on projects that are inconsistent with the path tolimit global warming to even 1.6 degrees Celsius.
"These projects represent an imminent challenge forinvestors and companies looking to align with climate goals,"the report warned.
Carbon Tracker's calculations were based on three scenariosproduced by the Paris-based IEA models of oil and gas supplyunder different warming pathways.
With fossil fuel supply on course to outstrip demand if theworld is to limit warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, the reportassumed that the projects with the lowest production costs wouldbe the most competitive.
"Demand for oil can be satisfied with projects that breakeven at below $40 per barrel and pursuing higher-cost projectsrisks creating stranded assets that will never deliver adequatereturns," the report said.
Benchmark crude futures were trading at around $62 perbarrel on Thursday.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Susan Fenton)
