Banks remain reluctant to invest in oil and gas companies
Banks retain oil and gas lending caution
The Ukraine crisis has not yet seen Europe’s financial institutions shift gears on lending to producers of domestic oil and gas
Francesco Dixit Dominus, CFO of North Sea new entrant Viaro Energy, is still waiting for any newfound enthusiasm for supply security to impact on the appetite of Europe’s financiers towards lending to oil and gas producers. “I do not know if, over the course of the next month, banks’ attitudes will change,” he tells Petroleum Economist. “But I do find it funny that the banks love my money when it comes from production revenues. Yet they remain so reluctant to invest in oil and gas companies.” On the finance side, what are the challenges in moving from being a trading company to an upstream company with its own production? Dixit Dominus: Before we entered the upstream, we were a pure trading
Also in this section
10 March 2026
Eni’s director for global gas and LNG portfolio, Cristian Signoretto, discusses how demand will respond to rising LNG supply, and how the company is expanding its own gas and LNG operations through disciplined, capital-efficient investments
9 March 2026
Petroleum Economist analysis sees increases in output from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Kazakhstan among others before region’s murky descent
9 March 2026
Energy sanctions are becoming an increasingly prominent tool of US foreign policy, with the country’s growth in oil and gas production allowing it to impose pressure on rivals without jeopardising its own energy security or that of its allies, argues Matthew McManus, a visiting fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics
6 March 2026
The March 2026 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
