Published on :
Paris (AFP) – The BNP Paribas bank announced in a press release on Tuesday that it wanted to divide its financing for the oil extraction and production sector by five, by reducing the amount of its outstanding loans to “less than one billion euros”.
This is a strong acceleration for the bank, which had so far communicated on a 25% reduction by 2025, even if refining and gas are not affected by this promise.
The group also claims not to have directly financed new oil projects since 2016. However, its support for companies continuing to develop new fields is partly counted as exploration and production.
The bank, which prides itself on having 55% of “low carbon” energies (renewable energies, nuclear and biofuel) in its energy financing portfolio, against 45% of fossil energies (mainly oil and gas), provides for a distribution 80-20 in 2030.
BNP Paribas thus aims to increase the outstanding amounts of its low-carbon, “essentially renewable” energy financing to 40 billion euros in 2030, compared to 24.8 in September.
With regard to gas, the banking group wishes to reduce its outstanding loans by 30%, estimated at 5.3 billion euros in September 2022, by reserving financing “primarily for new generation thermal power plants with low emission rates as well as ‘to security of supply, gas terminals and gas transport fleet’, according to the press release.
This announcement comes as the bank was put on notice at the end of October by three NGOs who accuse it of financing new oil and gas projects, in contradiction with its “duty of vigilance”.
BNP Paribas has until Thursday to send a response, after which the associations may decide to launch a summons.
© 2023 AFP