Oil: special focus

Nigerian banks make a mint from a crisis
May 2018

Oil prices and currency controls created opportunities for some banks, which reported bumper gains from FX and fixed income last year, but no one is expecting a repeat of that. Can lending keep them sweet?

Country risk: Debt-ridden Angola turns a corner
May 2018

The new president has made the start required to ensure investors take notice, with higher oil prices increasing liquidity, corruption addressed and business regulation improving.

Baiduri Bank bemoans the burden of Brunei’s bounty
March 2018
Financial markets are woefully underdeveloped in this oil- and gas-rich country. For Baiduri Bank, which is mulling a listing in Kuala Lumpur, that makes growing a tough proposition.

Nigeria is on a bumpy ride to better fortunes
January 2018

The largest economy in Africa is coping better and investors are returning, but a slowly improving risk score must not be confused with a high-risk ranking.

The conservation conversation after Bears Ears
December 2017

Initiatives designed to attract investment to conservation got a boost at the end of the year.

Ghana’s next oil boom is just around the corner
November 2017

The sovereign has recorded one of the largest improvements of any sub-Saharan borrower this year in Euromoney’s country risk survey – the recovering oil market, contract certainty and plans to expand the extractive industry explain why.

Oil has Oman over a barrel
September 2017

Low oil prices have put Oman’s government under pressure, while regional political turmoil could make life even more uncomfortable. A new economic model is called for, but can the leaders in Muscat find one quickly enough?

Country risk: Russia is on the long road back
June 2017

The rebound in the price of oil from below $30/barrel in early 2016 to $54/barrel in May has helped Russia avoid more disastrous consequences.

Azerbaijan’s risks are spiralling
May 2017

Confidence in the oil producer is wavering as a bank crisis unfolds.

Africa: Ghana’s power failure
May 2017

Ghana’s bulk distribution companies (BDCs) were supposed to be a tool to control capital flight in the oil and gas sector, but problems started to arise in 2009 when the government’s own oil distribution company and oil storage and transportation company began to compete directly with the BDCs.

Middle East: Saudi banks breathe as liquidity fears ease
May 2017

The liquidity issues that have plagued the Kingdom’s banks for months appear to have abated. But a persistently low oil price and the impending generational reform programme mean that Saudi Arabia’s financial sector still faces some big challenges.

New Kuwait highlights the same old problems
April 2017
Despite the halving of the oil price and the fact that 90% of Kuwait’s fiscal revenues come from sales of oil, the emirate is still expected to have a budget surplus this year.

Asia: Singapore banks can’t shake oil services headache
March 2017 
Blighted by souring loans; boosted by wealth management.

Will ETF providers join the Church and save the planet?
March 2017 

Religious organizations are challenging corporations over climate change, while big investors stay mute.

Euromoney Country Risk survey results 2016: Italy, UK and US shocks underline the risks of populism, as oil exporters take a caning
January 2017

ECR’s crowd-sourcing survey shows global risk rising in 2016, with leading economists and political experts revising their views on asset safety.

FX: Opec finally reaches deal to cut oil production
December 2016
After failing to reach agreement at its last two meetings, Opec agreed this week to cut oil output for the first time in eight years. The oil price responded favourably, but lingering doubts about the finer details could mean the impact is short lived.

Price pressures force change in oil and gas treasury strategy
November 2016 
The oil and gas sector has so far avoided making wholesale change to its treasury processes, but as the low price environment continues, firms are now being forced to explore cost cutting.

Mexico: Pemex woes deepen amid oil rout
May 2016 

Energy: PE weighs risks as banks shun oil and gas
April 2016 
Private equity firms quick to exploit oil sector distress; end investors remain cautious.

Regulation can’t help oil patch banks
April 2016 
It is the wider impacts that could undo financial firms, whatever the regulators recommend.

Oil slump raises Venezuela default risk
February 2016
Sovereign highly exposed to oil price drop; default still not fully priced into bonds.

US high yield pays a high oil price
April 2015
Outflows of $2 billion in one week; investors seek shorter duration.

M&A: Energy consolidation on cards as oil price tanks

January 2015
M&A needs to be long term; Corporates under pressure to re-lever

Euromoney Country Risk survey results 2014: Negative oil shock creates new threats

January 2015
With falling oil prices sending the currencies of hydrocarbons producers tumbling, amid political instability, conflict risk and weak, unbalanced economies persisting, almost half the world’s sovereigns endured higher risk in 2014.