Top oil companies including Saudi Aramco and Shell are joining forces to create an investment fund to develop technologies that will promote renewable energy.

According to the Reuters, the plan will also see the oil firms seek an active role in the fight against global warming.

The news agency reported that chief executives of seven oil and gas companies – BP, Eni, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Total – could announce details of the fund and other steps to reduce greenhouse gases in London.

It said the oil sector is facing a mounting pressure to take an active role in the fight against global warming, and that the fund’s announcement will coincide with the formal entry into force of the 2015 Paris Agreement to phase out man-made greenhouse gases in the second half of the century.

Accordingly, the group is part of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), which was created with the backing of the United Nations in 2014 and includes 11 companies representing 20 per cent of global oil and gas production.

The company leaders are expected to detail plans to create an investment vehicle that will focus on developing technologies to lower emissions and increase car engine and fuel efficiency, according to the sources involved in the talks who declined to be named.

The size and structure of the fund were still unclear but the the fund will also focus on ways to reduce costs of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which involves capturing carbon dioxide emissions produced from fossil fuel burning plants and re-injecting them into underground caverns