Oil companies wage their battle for light in Spain

In less than a year, large operations have announced in the Spanish market that they are changing the business map of energy.

Until not long ago, working in an oil company was synonymous with monotony. Beyond the joys he gave every time there was a large oil or gas field, the day-to-day life of a hydrocarbon company was continuity. The fewer surprises the better.

Now, to work in an oil company you need to hold your nerves. Large groups, especially Europeans, have engaged in a frantic race to a dizzying process of historic business transformation. They all want to be multienergy. In addition to fuels, they also want to offer their customers all kinds of light and gas services. The idea is good because, after all, energy, in all its forms, is going to end up being a product without differentiation. In addition, oil companies are moving in this direction pressured by society’s unstoppable evolution towards renewable and sustainable energy.

Either the oil companies change or they just die. It would be only a matter of time. Groups such as Repsol, BP, Total, Galp and Eni have understood this perfectly. And as life goes in that transformation, they want to do it at full speed. Interestingly, Spain has become the great battlefield where they are measuring their strength. In less than a year, all of them have announced in the Spanish market large operations that are changing the business map of energy. Not only are new electric and renewable giants being created.

Alliances are being redefined. Eni has just landed in Spain 13 years after leaving this market. It is no coincidence that it is not a few weeks after he reached an agreement with Naturgy to end his alliance in Egypt through Unión Fenosa Gas. It would have been very difficult to explain to shareholders on both sides that Eni bought Aldro Energía in Spain to compete in electricity and gas having as a partner Naturgy, the third electric in Spain, behind Iberdrola and Endesa.