The U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc may soon drop the word “oil” from its name in a move that would signal its transition to other sources of energy, an executive said.

With Shell Oil Co.’s parent focusing more on natural gas and looking at other energy alternatives, the “oil” in the name “is a little old-fashioned, I’d say, and at one point we’ll probably do something about that,” Marvin Odum, director of the company’s upstream Americas business, said Thursday at the Toronto Global Forum.

“The increasing returns and the profile of some of the renewable-energy companies is absolutely true,” Odum said in an interview with Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief emeritus of Bloomberg News. “The good news about that is it’s a clear signal that the transition is actually here.”

The Anglo-Dutch parent, Europe’s biggest oil company, began producing more natural gas than oil two years ago, a trend that has continued, Odum said. With the $70 billion acquisition of BG Group Plc, the company would become the world’s largest non-state gas producer.

Source: www.worldoil.com

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