A new report into bank funding for the fossil fuel industry has highlighted a resurgence in dealmaking for oil and gas firms. Financing for fossil fuel companies by the 65 largest oil and gas banks grew by more than 20 percent in 2024, from $707 billion to $869 billion, after two consecutive years of decline in 2022 and 2023.
“We’ve seen a significant turnaround. This is now a hot market, especially in the North Sea, after many years of consistent headwinds,” Bracewell’s Jason Fox told TXF.
“(Commodity traders) have a very big role and that is not new, but it is largely confined to more difficult jurisdictions,” Fox added. “Strong North Sea players for instance have a good pool of bank and fund liquidity and don’t have to commit offtake to traders as a price for raising financing. But trader finance is very common in African upstream finance either as the sole source or, more commonly, in combination with other sources.”
