FRANKFURT, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Germany's oil industry will aim
for net zero carbon emissions by 2045, moving away from fossil
fuel to low carbon products such as biofuels and renewable
energy-derived hydrogen, the industry's lobby group en2x said on
Wednesday.
"At the end of the process the mineral oil industry will no
longer be a mineral oil industry," Fabian Ziegler, chairman of
en2x and chief executive of Shell Deutschland GmbH,
said at a virtual press conference.
Oil from fossil fuel met 32% of German primary energy demand
with the rest met by natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewable
energies, data from industry group AGEB showed.
The en2x target comes after ambitious plans presented last
week by the incoming Berlin government to step up climate
protection efforts entailing far-reaching reforms for the
utility sector - which accounts for nearly a third of total
carbon pollution - and across manufacturing industries,
buildings, transport and agriculture.
Of mineral oil products, some 60% go into transport, 20%
into heating and the rest mostly chemical industry purposes.
Ziegler said refineries will aim to switch to producing and
using in internal processes green hydrogen, petrol stations will
adopt electric charging points and hydrogen for heavy vehicles
in their product mix.
The industry was developing synthetic fuels for ships and
airplanes and decarbonised fuels for chemicals production.
The industry lobby recently renamed itself en2x, the
association of fuels and energy, to reflect its shift from
fossil fuel-related activities to a new variety of energy
products and usage options. Its members include BP Europe, Esso
Deutschland and Austria's OMV.
It groups big oil members of the legacy fossil-fuels
association, Mineraloelwirtschaftsverband, that import crude,
run refineries and petrol stations. It aligns them with the
former IWO institute for oil heating.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
