Insights
Energy companies have now reduced debt for 8 consecutive quarters
Research conducted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has shown that energy companies have now reduced debt for eight consecutive quarters – or two full years.
This sustained debt reduction contributed to Q3 seeing the lowest long-term debt-to-equity ratio (40%) for the group since third-quarter 2014.
This analysis was part of EIA’s Financial Review of the Global Oil and Natural Gas Industry for Q3 2018, a report put together using financial and operating data supplied by Evaluate Energy.
Of the group that the EIA studied for this quarterly review, a closer look at Evaluate Energy’s data shows that only five companies reduced debt by more than 10% in Q3 2018 compared to Q2 2018.
| Company Name | Gross Debt, Q3 2018 ($ million) | Debt Reduction vs. Q2 2018 |
| TransGlobe Energy Corporation | 53 | 16% |
| Berry Petroleum Corporation | 392 | 14% |
| TransAtlantic Petroleum Ltd. | 26 | 14% |
| Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc | 1,328 | 12% |
| SM Energy Company | 2,593 | 11% |
Source: Evaluate Energy
The greatest reductions in debt in pure dollar terms were predictably among the bigger companies of the EIA’s study group. Brazil’s Petrobras reduced gross debt by $3.6 billion between Q2 and Q3 2018, while Russia’s Rosneft, Chevron and PetroChina were close behind with respective reductions of $2.7 billion, $2.4 billion and $2.4 billion.
The full EIA report, along with the entire list of companies that were used to create the analysis above, is available to download from the EIA at this link.
Click here for a demonstration of the Evaluate Energy database that was used by the EIA to create the report.