When Big Oil majors started buying EV charging networks and battery producers, they probably earned some praise for venturing into new business directions away from their increasingly unpopular core business. Now, they are taking this a step further: supermajors have super utility plans. It was only a matter of time, really. Integrated oil companies know the importance of covering the whole supply chain in an industry, so it only made sense to grow into power generation once you’ve established a presence in one of the biggest growth segments in power demand: electric vehicles. French Total led the way by buying local electricity retailer Direct Energie last year for more than US$1.7 billion. According to CEO Patrick Pouyanne, electricity will be the energy of the 21 st century and Total is using every opportunity to expand there. In fact, since 2014 when Pouyanne assumed the top post at Total, the […]