Commercial Bank Domestic And International Petroleum Financing

This paper will concern itself specifically with the methods used by commercial banks in financing the development of oil and gas reserves both in the U.S. and overseas and both onshore and offshore. It must be emphasized at the outset that banks do not finance wildcat wells and, in fact, only loan money on proven reserves. This does not mean that the field must be developed nor does it mean that the reserves must be producing, but rather the field must be defined with enough wells drilled to assure the bank engineer or the bank's consulting firm that the reserves are proven.