TotalEnergies (TTE 1.39%) has a coherent and realistic plan to transition from a dominant oil and gas company into a dominant renewable energy company. In this Motley Fool Live segment from "The High Energy Show," recorded on June 7, Fool.com contributor Tyler Crowe takes a closer look at what sets TotalEnergies apart from its peers.
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Tyler Crowe: Total is, for a lack of a better term, they are on-par with a ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell in the idea that they engage with the entire oil and gas value chain from exploration all the way down to retail stations and everything in between. It makes them at least in my opinion, one of the more unique companies and one of the better investments for somebody looking to be involved in energy now and in the long term. To me, it has the most coherent and realistic plan to transition from we are a dominant oil and gas company who is going to become a dominant renewable energy company. Right now, I think it's like 40-50 percent of their profits come from oil because they have very good oil production and very good cost structure around that. When COVID hit and things really looked shaky for a little while, they came out. They were the only oil and gas company do this. It said look, as long as Brent oil stays above $40, your dividend is fine. But we can return cash to shareholders, we have a good cost structure, and we can do this while also making the necessary investments to go forward.
You saw BP and Shell, they cut their dividend as fast as they could. Like this is so great, we get can retain more cash and blow it on something else stupid. But Total specifically came in and said, no, this is how we're going to do it. And to their credit, it has worked. They were able to bring down cost structure because they found some really good offshore developments in like the mid-2010s and got them online. They have some other low-cost options. They're pushing very hard into LNG as their bridge transition fuel that should work relatively well and so what happens right now it's very profitable.
