By: Yassir Ghiyati
Energy resilience is a priority at both governmental and boardroom level. Geopolitical shocks, volatile prices, shifting regulations, and fragile supply chains are testing the assumptions behind long-term investment and risk assessment.
Fuel and chemical producers are seeking to protect their investments while positioning their businesses for a changing energy landscape. What is developing is not a binary choice between security of supply and energy transition, however. It is rather a strategic imperative to strengthen both simultaneously through diversification.
That means diversifying feedstocks, products and markets. Dependence on a narrow set of feedstock sources, production routes, and regions leaves countries and companies exposed to disruptions often beyond their control. A broader portfolio reduces that exposure and creates strong alternative options if and when conditions change. The winners will be those that build flexibility into their assets and supply strategies, rather than wait for certainty that may never arrive.
Responding To Shifting Markets, Boosting Security
For refiners, flexibility means looking beyond a single feedstock and product slate. Conventional fuels remain essential, but they need not be the only output. Some refineries have already expanded revenue streams by repurposing hydroprocessing units or developing greenfield facilities to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel via feedstocks such as used cooking oil and biomass.
Others are co-processing, using existing refinery units to make both conventional and renewable fuels. It can help fuel producers to respond to shifting markets and, at the same time, strengthen energy and fuel security.
The same principle applies across the energy system. Demand for power is growing, and businesses need reliable, affordable energy, even as they reduce emissions. Recent disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz have highlighted supply chain dependencies. They have also made the case for deploying proven solutions now, across energy efficiency, biofuels, e-fuels, low-carbon hydrogen, and ammonia. It becomes more relevant to the resilience and competitiveness of the system we are building.
Advancing Technologies, Catalyst Solutions
Technology is a constraint. Solutions exist today to produce clean fuels at scale, and innovation continues to improve their efficiency, performance, and cost. At Topsoe, we are advancing technologies for SAF, e-SAF, clean hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol, while continuing to innovate and deliver catalyst solutions that support the most energy efficient conventional fuel production. The strategic question is how quickly proven solutions can become attractive investments for investors as well as assets operating at scale.
The answer to that question depends on policy stability, investor confidence, and offtake agreements that are price realistic. Unclear policy, changing regulations, and uncertain returns make capital harder to commit. Projects need to factor in permits, infrastructure, financing, dependable energy, and raw materials. Above all, they need credible offtake and risk-sharing.
Without buyers prepared to commit, first-of-a-kind projects can fail to reach final investment decision – even when the technology is ready.
Our Global Hydrogen Presence
Topsoe helps customers who seek to make that transition with minimised risk when it comes to technology. Roughly one in every three hydrogen molecules worldwide is produced using Topsoe solutions. That installed base gives us a platform to support the scale-up of low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia.
Proven commercial references, technology validation and performance guarantees strengthen project fundamentals from planning through operation. As a science-based company, we continue to invest in research and innovation to advance catalysts and technologies that deliver ever-more efficient production.
No single fuel or technology alone will prove to be the future of our energy system. Resilience will be a core characteristic and come from developing and maintaining a broad portfolio of options and from the ability to adapt to changing needs and disruptions. Companies and countries that diversify will be better positioned to withstand market uncertainty, compete as markets evolve, and meet future demand.
The opportunity is clear; the technologies are here. Now industry, policymakers and buyers must provide the certainty, investment, and offtake that allow the energy landscape to move forward.
Topsoe is a leading global provider of advanced energy transition solutions for producing clean and conventional fuels and chemicals.
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