Banks Ranked and Spanked on Tar Sands
Illustration by Stefan Lorant
As an ode to the “rank ‘em and spank ‘em” strategy coined by our outgoing Executive Director Mike Brune, we proudly present the following roster of international banks backing expansion in the tar sands.
The table below is based on credit extended underwritten by each bank to companies operating in the tar sands since 2007 according to Bloomberg. Restrictions at Bloomberg now prevent us from publishing deal-by-deal details to the web, but are available upon request if you leave your email in the comments.
Each of these banks received letters from RAN, IEN and BankTrack late last year requesting information about how they are addressing the damage caused by tar sands development. Responses (or lack thereof) will help us identify which banks are serious about responsible banking, and which may need more convincing. Responses received to date are also linked in the table after the jump.
UPDATE: There’s been some questions about how these numbers are derived. We have answers, following the table.
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*Totals are based on underwriting league tables reported by Bloomberg. Totals are derived from loans to companies with significant operations in the tar sands. Specifically the companies listed below. Totals may not reflect actual lending. Totals represent the full value of loans where the bank acted as lead book-runner (also called managing underwriter, lead manager, etc…) . Where the bank was one of multiple lead book-runners, value is awarded pro-rata. Here’s the details from Bloomberg (look under “fixed income eligibility criteria”).
Athabasca Oil Sands Corp
Baytex Energy Trust
Bonavista Energy Trust
BP plc
Bronco Energy Ltd
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd
Canadian Oil Sands Trust
CanWest Petroleum Corp
Cenovus Energy Inc
Chevron Corp
China National Petroleum Corp
Connacher Oil & Gas Ltd
ConocoPhillips
Devon Energy Corp
Enbridge Inc
EnCana Corp
Enerplus Resources Fund
Exxon Mobil Corp
Harvest Energy Trust
Husky Energy Inc
Imperial Oil Ltd
Inter Pipeline Fund
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP
Koch Resources LLC
Korea National Oil Corp
Marathon Oil Corp
MEG Energy Corp
Mocal Energy Ltd
Murphy Oil Corp
Nexen Inc
Nippon Oil Corp
Occidental Petroleum Corp
Oilsands Quest Inc
OPTI Canada Inc
Paramount Resources Ltd
Pembina Pipeline Income Fund
Pengrowth Energy Trust
Penn West Energy Trust
Petrobank Energy & Resources Ltd
Petro-Canada
Royal Dutch Shell plc
Sinopec Group
StatoilHydro ASA
Suncor Energy Inc
Syncrude Canada Ltd
Total SA
TransCanada Corp
UTS Energy Corp
6 Responses to “Banks Ranked and Spanked on Tar Sands”
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January 31st, 2010 at 2:24 pm
[...] on Tar Sands” Published January 31, 2010 Uncategorized Leave a Comment Brant on The Understory blog As an ode to the “rank ‘em and spank ‘em” strategy coined by our outgoing Executive [...]
February 11th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
[...] than $84 million (USD) in debt and equity underwriting fees (see updated details on these numbers here). Gay claims RBC has “less than $2 billion” invested in the tar sands. We’re [...]
February 11th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
[...] and has invested financed over $20 billion USD over the last 5 years (UPDATE: see details on more recent numbers). To extract tar sands oil requires churning up huge tracts of ancient boreal forest and polluting [...]
February 12th, 2010 at 5:07 am
[...] For RBS investments see http://understory.ran.org/2010/01/31/banks-ranked-and-spanked-on-tar-sands/ [...]
February 16th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
[...] See how RBC’s tar sands financing stacks up to other banks in our earlier post: “Banks Ranked and Spanked on Tar Sands“ [...]
March 3rd, 2010 at 6:57 am
[...] “It is unacceptable that RBC is a major financier of the Alberta tar sands, one of the most environmentally destructive projects in the world,” said Maryam Adrangi, a member of Rainforest Action Network Toronto and a lead organizer of today’s rally. “We will not stop until RBC adopts a socially responsible banking policy that includes respect for Indigenous rights and the phasing out financing for dirty fossil fuels like the tar sands.” According to Bloomberg, since 2007, RBC has backed $16.9 billion in loans to companies operating in the tar sands, and has earned more than $132 million in underwriting fees. As a result, RBC has enabled the production of the world’s dirtiest oil. Oil extraction from the tar sands generates three times the CO2 emissions as conventionally extracted oil, and will soon make Canada the biggest contributor to global warming. Mining oil from tar sands requires churning up huge tracts of ancient boreal forest and polluting so much clean water with poisonous chemicals that the resulting waste ponds can be seen from outer space. The health impacts to Alberta’s First Nation communities are severe, with cancer rates up in some communities as much as 400 times its usual frequency. In addition, communities living near oil refineries face increased air and water pollution from tar sands oil, which contains 11 times more sulfur and nickel and five times more lead than conventional oil. The Rainforest Action Network campaign to Clean Up RBC has been demanding that RBC take responsibility for its lending in the tar sands by meeting basic standards set by other leading banks on Indigenous rights, water and habitat impacts and climate change. ### For more information on RBC and the tar sands, visit: http://understory.ran.org/tag/rbc/ To see how RBC stacks up to other banks on financing in the tar sands see: http://understory.ran.org/2010/01/31/banks-ranked-and-spanked-on-tar-sands [...]