MADRID 25 Oct. () –
Cepsa has decided to put on ‘stand-by’ its investments in new hydrogen projects in Spain due to regulatory and fiscal uncertainty in the country, given the possibility that the extraordinary tax on energy companies could become a permanent tax, and is studying prioritize international projects.
Sources from the company, the country’s second largest oil company, told Europa Press that “it is assessing the impact that an increase in its taxation may have if a new permanent tax is approved,” and stressed that, if this materializes, “it would cause a very relevant effect on the profitability of hydrogen projects, which is why it would have to slow down the planned investments in Spain and give priority to green hydrogen projects in other countries that, initially, had planned an international expansion for a second phase of the plan. ‘Positive Motion’ strategy”.
The group controlled by Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, and the American investment fund Carlyle has as its emblematic project the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley, which is planned to be erected in one of the largest green hydrogen production centers in Europe to decarbonize industry, aviation and heavy maritime and land transport, and turn Spain into a sustainable energy exporting country.
This project foresees an investment of 3,000 million euros and the creation of 10,000 jobs, including direct, indirect and induced. To produce this energy vector, Cepsa will use renewable electricity and wastewater to reduce freshwater consumption and promote the circular economy.
Despite this decision, the same sources specified that the ongoing transformation of Cepsa “is irreversible to ensure that more than half of its profit comes from sustainable activities in 2030.”
According to the newspaper ‘Expansión’ this Friday, Cepsa has already identified projects in Algeria, Morocco, Brazil and the United States that will be accelerated if resources are finally released in Spain due to the so-called ‘tax’.
Last week, the Government announced that it included among the commitments sent to Brussels the “permanent” maintenance of extraordinary taxes on energy and banking.
Initially approved for two years -2023 and 2024- due to the impact of the crisis due to the war in Ukraine, the Government has received more than 2.4 billion euros from the energy sector in these two years for this item.
Cepsa has been one of the groups most affected by this tax in the last two years. In fact, in 2023, it closed with losses of 233 million after paying more than 320 million euros for the tax.
FRONT REJECTION OF THE SECTOR.
This Thursday, the Spanish Association of Petroleum Products Operators (AOP) – the association of large oil companies, which includes Cepsa, Repsol, Galp, Disa and BP, among others – already showed its rejection of a permanent tax on energy sector and warned that this tax or the lack of clarity about the fiscal horizon could “discourage investments in the country”, putting at risk the 16 billion euros that the sector plans to address for its decarbonization until 2030.
Furthermore, Cepsa thus follows in the footsteps of Repsol in its frontal opposition to the possibility that this tribute could be perpetuated over time.
The company led by Josu Jon Imaz announced this week its decision to invest 15 million euros in a new renewable hydrogen project at its Sines Industrial Complex, in Portugal.
Already a year ago, it had made clear its intention to ‘fallow’ carrying out the investment process in some of its industrial projects in different areas of Spanish territory until it had stable and sufficiently attractive conditions to guarantee profitability.
In fact, at the end of October 2023, in a conference with analysts, Repsol’s CEO, Josu Jon Imaz, already indicated that the company had “other alternatives”, such as Portugal, where it could have international activity in its industrial business. .
Repsol thus keeps investments close to 1,500 million euros in the air that could affect projects in the group’s portfolio in Euskadi, Tarragona (Catalonia) and Cartagena (Murcia).
Add Comment