历史上第一次，银行为可再生能源项目提供的贷款超过了化石燃料项目
油气生产商越来越多地吸引私募股权投资者的资金
去年年底，欧洲两家知名银行誓言要大幅削减对化石燃料行业的敞口
中国石化新闻网讯 据油价网2023年1月5日报道，去年，银行为可再生能源项目的发展安排和承销的资本首次超过了石油、天然气和煤炭公司。去年化石燃料行业融资规模的大幅下降，并不一定意味着对油气行业的贷款出现了明显减少。这可能只是由于在大宗商品价格飙升的背景下，油气公司的资产负债表更加健康，并利用了私募股权或资产支持证券化交易等替代融资方式。
清洁能源融资超过化石燃料债务问题
对油气行业的传统贷款并没有消失。但越来越多的银行承诺在2022年停止为部分或所有类型的新化石燃料开发项目提供资金，因为银行面临着来自股东和社会越来越大的压力，要求它们削减客户投资组合的碳排放。
另一方面，由于油价飙升，去年石油和天然气行业现金充裕，但该行业坚持资本纪律，尤其是在美国，专注于向股东支付股息和偿还债务，而不是接受更多贷款。
根据彭博新闻社汇编的数据，去年，清洁能源项目和企业在债券市场上筹集了大约5800亿美元的资金。与此同时，为石油、天然气和煤炭公司安排的债券发行额接近5300亿美元。根据彭博新闻社分析的数据，这是可再生能源融资首次超过化石燃料债务融资。
不过，2022年的数据可能并不意味着能源行业债务市场新趋势的开始。
非盈利环境保护组织“雨林行动网络”(RAN)的研究部门主管阿普里尔·梅洛表示，油气公司已经开始转向其他资金来源，而这些资金更难筹集。
梅洛对彭博新闻社记者表示：“很难有信心地说，贷款市场将出现一种延续到2023年的新趋势。”
石油和天然气繁荣的替代融资
美国私人石油和天然气生产商正在寻找一个蓬勃发展的替代融资市场，因为银行已经减少了对石油和天然气业务的融资，而其他传统的融资来源，如股权投资或储备贷款(RBL)设施正在枯竭。这个新的替代融资市场出现于2019年，是成熟生产(PDP)证券化，即石油或天然气生产商在资产支持证券化(ABS)交易中发行债券。换句话说，上游生产商将其石油和/或天然气生产的现金用作向投资者提供票据的抵押品。
惠誉评级在2020年初表示：“石油和天然气资产支持的证券化有助于油气公司实现资金来源的多样化，这些油气公司通常会从更传统的来源获得资金，如基于储备的贷款、高收益债券发行或股权投资。”当时这种类型的融资是全新的，疫情大流行还没有打击石油需求。
据路透社援引古根海姆证券的数据显示，2022年，石油和天然气资产证券化市场蓬勃发展，能源ABS交易的价值比2021年增长了两倍。
在英国，行业组织日前告诉英国《金融时报》，由于最近对北海石油和生产商的暴利税上调，北海盆地的许多小型运营商可能会发现他们基于储备的贷款(银行定期评估)削减了50%。
一些银行退出石油和天然气贷款
在ESG趋势和股东的压力下，银行已经开始宣布削减对油气行业的贷款。去年年底，欧洲两家知名银行誓言要大幅削减对化石燃料行业的敞口。法国最大的零售银行法国农业信贷银行在去年12月初表示，其目标是到2025年前不再为石油开采项目提供新的融资，并将其石油勘探和生产敞口比2020年削减25%。
作为对新承诺的回应，非营利环保组织“回收金融”呼吁法国农业信贷银行也停止为新的天然气开采项目提供融资，并提高对客户在化石燃料领域撤资的要求。
2022年早些时候，荷兰国际集团表示，其目标是到2025年底前将可再生能源的新融资增长50%，并且不再为新的油气田项目提供专门的融资。
银行巨头汇丰银行去年12月宣布，将停止为新的油气田开发和相关基础设施提供资金，这是其支持和资助零碳转型政策的一部分。
RAN和其他气候社区组织表示，在汇丰银行做出承诺之后，美国银行现在面临着停止为新的石油和天然气项目提供资金的压力。
这些环保组织补充说，美国银行是世界上化石燃料项目的最大资助者，“仍然拒绝在气候问题上做出真正的承诺”。
摩根大通、花旗银行、富国银行和美国银行这4家美国银行是化石燃料的主要出资人，占该行业全球融资总额的四分之一。在2016年至2021年期间，这4家美国银行向化石燃料行业注入了超过1.2万亿美元的资金。
李峻 编译自 油价网
原文如下：
Renewables Financing Tops Fossil Fuel Lending For The First Time Ever
· For the first time in history, banks underwrote more loans for renewable energy projects than for fossil fuel projects.
· Hydrocarbon producers increasingly attract funds from private equity investors.
· At the end of last year, two prominent banks in Europe vowed to significantly cut exposure to the fossil fuels sector.
Banks arranged and underwrote more capital for the development of renewable energy projects than for oil, gas, and coal firms for the first time ever last year. Last year’s slump in capital raised by the fossil fuel industry doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a marked shift away from oil and gas lending. It may have just been the result of healthier balance sheets of oil and gas firms amid soaring commodity prices and the tapping of alternative financing, such as from private equity or asset-backed securitization transactions.
Clean Energy Funding Exceeds Fossil Fuel Debt Issues
Traditional lending to the oil and gas industry hasn’t gone away. But more banks pledged in 2022 to stop funding some or all types of new fossil fuel developments as lenders are under increased pressure from shareholders and society to cut back>The oil and gas industry,>Last year, clean energy projects and ventures saw around $580 billion in money raised>Still, the data from 2022 may not be indicative of the beginning of a new trend in debt markets for the energy sector.
Oil and gas firms have started to turn to alternative sources of funding, which are more difficult to readily compile, according to April Merleaux, research manager at environmental nonprofit Rainforest Action Network (RAN).
“It’s difficult to say with confidence that there’s a new trend in the lending markets that will extend into 2023,” Merleaux told Bloomberg.
Alternative Financing For Oil And Gas Booms
Private U.S. oil and gas producers are looking at a booming market for alternative funding, as banks have pulled back from funding oil and gas operations and other traditional sources of financing, such as equity investment or reserve-based lending (RBL) facilities, are drying up. This new market, which emerged in 2019, is the proved developed producing (PDP) securitization, in which an oil or gas producer issues bonds in an asset-backed securitization (ABS) transaction. In other words, upstream producers use the cash from their oil and/or gas production as collateral for the notes placed with investors.
“Securitizations backed by oil and gas assets help diversify funding sources for companies that would typically access capital from more traditional sources, such as reserve based lending (RBL) facilities, high-yield bond issuance or equity investment,” Fitch Ratings said in early 2020 when this type of funding was brand-new and the pandemic hadn’t crushed oil demand yet.
In 2022, the oil and gas asset securitization market blossomed, with energy ABS deals tripling in value from 2021, according to data from Guggenheim Securities cited by Reuters.
In the UK, due to the recent hike in the windfall tax>Some Banks Back Out Of Oil & Gas Lending
Pressured by ESG trends and shareholders, banks have started to announce cuts to lending to the oil and gas industry. At the end of last year, two prominent banks in Europe vowed to significantly cut exposure to the fossil fuels sector. Credit Agricole, the largest retail lender in France, said in early December that it targets to have no new financing granted for oil extraction projects by 2025, and to cut its oil exploration and production exposure by 25% by 2025 compared to 2020.
In response to the new pledges, environmental nonprofit group Reclaim Finance called>Earlier in 2022, ING said it would aim to grow new financing of renewable energy by 50% by year-end 2025 and would no longer provide dedicated finance to new oil and gas fields.
Banking giant HSBC announced last month it would stop funding new oil and gas field developments and related infrastructure as part of a policy to support and finance a net-zero transition.
Following HSBC’s pledge, the pressure is now>U.S. banks were the biggest funders of fossil fuel projects in the world and “are still refusing to make real commitments>“Four US banks, JP Morgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, are the top fossil fuel funders and make up one quarter of the total global funding for the industry. Between 2016 and 2021 these banks pumped over US$1.2 trillion into the fossil fuel sector.”
