A group of investors with combined assets of more than 1.5 trillion US dollars (ยฃ1.23 trillion) have written to five of Europe's biggest banks, including Barclays, urging them to stop lending to fossil fuel firms.
HSBC will no longer provide lending or capital markets financing for new oil and gas fields, it has announced, while accelerating support for renewable energy.
It is a strange time for the oil and gas sector. On the one hand, after years of price weakness, the money is rolling in again as the war in Ukraine and post-Covid disruptions keep prices high.
Kuwait has started up its giant Al-Zour refinery, Kpler has reported IIR Energy as saying. One crude distillation unit (CDU) at the 615,000 barrel per day plant started up a few days ago, it said.
Investments in Africaโs oil and gas risk undermining a move to lower carbon energy sources and are at risk of becoming stranded assets, according to a new report.
Europeโs oil and gas majors could access a wide pool of investors and โunlock valueโ by spinning off their renewables assets in initial public offerings (IPOs).
A historic crash in oil prices and fallout from the coronavirus pandemic will accelerate asset sales in the Middle East and open up a gap for sovereign wealth funds to make โopportunistic investments,โ according to HSBC Holdings Plc.
HSBC bosses were pressed by shareholders on Friday over the lenderโs new energy policy and worries over gender balance at the UK-headquartered lender.
Saudi Arabiaโs economy is set to grow this year at the slowest pace since 2002 as the oil-price plunge drains the kingdomโs finances, according to projections released by the International Monetary Fund and HSBC.
In the months since Brazilโs largest bribery scandal broke, bond investors have fled companies tied to the alleged kickbacks. Theyโve been far too hasty, according to HSBC Holdings Plc and Mizuho Securities USA.
Odebrecht Offshore Drilling and Queiroz Galvao Oil & Gas Constellation are a case in point. Their securities have plunged at least 27% since November 13, when federal police said they found โstrong evidenceโ that at least seven builders, including the parent companies of the two oil-rig providers, formed a cartel to win public contracts.
To Mizuhoโs John Haugh, the bonds are now a buy because the terms that govern them will likely shield the issuers from any punishment the parent companies may face if theyโre found guilty of bribing Petroleos Brasileiro SA, the state oil company.