MoeveCopied

Renaming an oil company is never just a design job. On 30 October 2024 Cepsa, Spain's second largest oil company, told employees it was changing its name to Moeve after nearly a century. Reuters reported that chief executive Maarten Wetselaar framed the change as a reflection of the company's shift toward low carbon businesses, and RTVE described it as an attempt to leave behind a past tied to petroleum and become a reference point for Europe's energy transition.

The company tied the new name directly to strategy. Its Positive Motion plan, launched in March 2022, commits up to 8 billion euros of investment, more than 60 percent of it to sustainable businesses such as green hydrogen, second generation biofuels, sustainable chemicals and ultra fast electric charging. Wetselaar said that after more than 90 years as Cepsa the company was becoming a different kind of organisation, one that expects most of its profits to come from sustainable activities by the end of the decade. The release listed the evidence: a planned Andalusian green hydrogen valley, a biofuels plant for sustainable aviation fuel, hundreds of ultra fast chargers, and the sale of close to 70 percent of its oil production assets compared with 2022.

Reuters added the ownership context: the company is controlled by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala fund and the US private equity firm Carlyle. The rollout was to begin in November across offices and service stations, which would add new convenience and multi energy services, backed by a global advertising campaign. The brand was developed with Landor. Wetselaar called it a proud moment for a workforce of more than 11,000 people, as well as for customers and partners, and the company noted it was also reshaping its chemicals business toward products made from renewable raw materials.

A name change of this kind invites the obvious charge of greenwashing, and the company clearly anticipated it by stuffing its announcement with projects and percentages. That is the right instinct. Abandoning a century of Cepsa recognition is a costly signal that is harder to dismiss than a new slogan. The test is the one Wetselaar set himself: whether, by 2030, most of the profit really comes from the green side. Until then, the name is a promise, not a proof.