Good morning, here's what the Oilman has for you today:

• Oil Investors Want Lower Dividends, Higher Transition Spend

• Al Gore Wants Banks To Stop Funding Oil and Gas

• Upcoming Oil and Gas Events

• Tweet of the Day

Al Gore Wants Banks To Stop Funding Oil and Gas

Net-zero campaigner and millionaire Al Gore has criticized banks for continuing to lend to the oil and gas industry.

Gore accused banks of “profiting hugely” from their business with the industry.

Kill the competition with criticism

Al Gore is the co-founder of Generation Investment Management—a firm focused on so-called sustainable investments.

Without banks, these sustainable investments would shrivel and die.

And yet, banks still lend more to oil and gas than “sustainable investments.”

It must be really frustrating seeing the competition win.

And their record profits from last year must have added insult to injury.

At least Gore acknowledged that banks can’t just up and cut off financing to the oil and gas industry.

He even acknowledges that oil and gas producers don’t really have an incentive to stop being what they are.

It’s a tough old world to be a net-zero campaigner in.

Finance: the last bastion of common sense

Whatever Gore says, a lot of banks have made loud commitments to stop funding oil and gas.

Of course, none of them has dared to cut off all financing.

No, their commitments are for “new projects,” some in certain areas such as oil sands only.

Campaigners are allowed to be driven by ideology (and $200,000 fees for speaking engagements).

Bankers, however, are driven by profit.

And if oil and gas bring in profit, of course, they’ll continue to finance them.

Today’s Edition Is Brought To You By ROX Exploration

Invest in the future of energy with ROX Exploration – a family-owned, independent company dedicated to exploring, developing, and producing oil and natural gas assets. ROX's team of experts drills and operates properties throughout Oklahoma.

If you're an accredited investor looking to diversify into direct oil & gas working interest offerings, then connect with ROX Exploration today.

Oil Investors Want Lower Dividends, Higher Transition Spend

In the past, oil investors, like all investors, were all about bottom lines.

Now, some institutional oil and gas stockholders seem to be in favor of lower dividends.

If it meant more spending on transition-related activities.

Just talk or a real change of priorities?

Deloitte, which did a study on investor attitudes towards dividends and spending, says it might be real.

Per the study, 75% of shareholders polled said they’d stick with their oil and gas shares, even if dividends declined to 3%.

As long as the companies invested more in low-carbon tech.

It probably goes to show how effective the transition campaign has been.

But it gets more interesting.

Deloitte looked at historical data and found something odd.

Institutional shareholders in oil and gas actually increased their holdings after a dividend cut.

That happened in more than 60% of the cases Deloitte reviewed.

Weird?

Maybe not.

The long-term view

Dividends get cut when the company or the industry isn’t doing so well.

It’s a way to protect the long-term health of the company.

Institutional investors probably understand that.

So it’s not as odd as it looks.

What is odd is the attitude to transition investments.

After two supermajors said, they’d be doing less of that and more oil and gas.

Because they saw transition investments don’t pay that much.

But if investors don’t care about profits and dividends…

What’s the point of investing at all?

Apparently, pressure on Big Oil to change its ways.

Upcoming Oil & Gas Events

• September 15-16: GO-WV Sports Weekend, Bridgeport Country Club, Bridgeport, WV

• September 17-20: GPA Midstream Annual Convention, San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter, San Antonio, TX

• September 17-21: 24th World Petroleum Conference, Stampede Park, Calgary, Canada

• September 19-21: North Dakota Petroleum Council Annual Meeting, Watford City, ND

Around the Global Patch

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia's reality: $100-a-Barrel Oil.
🇨🇳 China's LNG buying surge and global gas market concerns.
🌍TotalEnergies' green hydrogen to fuel European refineries.

Tweet of the Day

Thanks for reading today's Oil Patch!

Stay oily, my friend.

Two quick requests before you go:

• If you found this useful, forward this email to a friend to spread the word. 👇

• Take 1 second to answer the poll below, and please tell us what you think 👇👇