The Punch Newspaper carried a story on Friday that Nigerian banks were currently negotiating with Local Oil and Gas majors in a bid to restructure their loans. This is due to the steep fall in the price of crude which has plunged from $115 per barrel in June 2014 to about $48 currently. The likes of Seplat, Oando, Seven Energy, Nest Oil, Sapetro have all become huge players in the upstream segment of the oil and gas sectors with some requiring local lending to part finance their acquisition sprees. But with oil prices on a downward spiral, it is only a matter of time for some of those companies to start facing serious liquidity crisis threatening default. According to the article, the following banks have the highest exposure to Oil and Gas business.
Breakdown as at 2014 Q3
1. First Bank – 40 per cent,
2. GTBank -28 per cent,
3. Fidelity Bank – 28 per cent)
4. Skye Bank – 27 per cent,
5. Access Bank – 25%
6. Diamond Bank -25%.
7. Zenith Bank -18%
8. Ecobank -18%
9. United Bank for Africa -16%
10. First City Monument Bank 14%.