Repsol ad banned for not mentioning large-scale oil forms 'vast majority'
An advert for global energy company Repsol's renewable hydrogen has been banned because it failed to mention that the majority of its business is in large-scale oil and gas.
The ad, which appeared on the Financial Times website in July, showed a water droplet with the caption: "Renewable hydrogen, another alternative to reduce emissions. At Repsol, we are committed to renewable hydrogen as an energy source that offers up different uses such as zero net emissions synthetic fuel production."
Adfree Cities complained that the ad was misleading as it didn't include information about the overall environmental impact of Repsol's business activities. Repsol defended itself by saying that a third of its total spending goes towards low-carbon energy and it plans to achieve net zero emissions across its business by 2050. The company also claims to be the largest operator in the Spanish electric vehicle (EV) charging network.
Repsol, a Spanish company, stated that it doesn't have a significant presence in the UK market and its ad was aimed at potential investors in the energy sector, not the general public. The firm argued that it's not required to detail all its business activities in an ad and insisted that the ad couldn't have misled consumers or investors into making a decision they wouldn't otherwise have made.
The ASA revealed that Repsol's carbon emissions were 171 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) in 2021, which is half of the UK's emissions for that year. The company also produces about 600,000 barrels of oil daily.
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The watchdog highlighted that Repsol has a substantial oil and gas exploration strategy, owning interests in 40,660 acres of oil and gas development and exploration across Europe, Latin America, North America, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
The ASA stated: "We therefore understood that large-scale global oil and gas investment and exploration formed the vast majority of Repsol's business interests."
"We considered the ad gave the overall impression that a significant proportion of Repsol's business comprised lower carbon energy, such as renewable hydrogen, and therefore further information about the proportion of Repsol's overall business model that comprised lower carbon energy was material information that should have been included."
"Because the ad did not include that information, we concluded it omitted material information and was likely to mislead."
The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again, adding: "We told Repsol to ensure that their future ads featuring environmental claims did not mislead by omitting significant information about the proportion of their business activities that were comprised of renewable energy, or the role renewable energy and renewable hydrogen played in their business activities."
Repsol said: "We respectfully disagree with this ruling and remain committed to maintaining our leadership in providing increasingly decarbonised energy for society through our investments in hydrogen, renewable fuels and renewable power, amongst others."
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can report any errors to [email protected]
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