Royal Dutch Shell plc CEO Ben van Beurden acknowledged Thursday there may be some pain associated with the share price in constricting oil and gas activities as it moves toward a carbon-free goal, but customers “increasingly” are embracing the global energy transition.

Customers are calling for more carbon-neutral fuel, oil and natural gas, including for liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes, van Beurden said during a third quarter conference call.

Shell last year became the first retailer to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from UK customer fuel purchases at no extra cost at more than 1,000 branded service stations. 

“On carbon neutrality, indeed we see this taken up in other parts of our business…It was very successfully launched…in Germany and Austria and...