石油和天然氣生產商正在使其資金來源多樣化

能源資產證券化是一種新型的融資方式，正在迅速流行起來

律師事務所Sidley Austin LLP的能源金融合伙人Daniel Allison說，石油和天然氣證券化產品可能對投資者和生產商都有利

據油價網12月24日報道，隨著銀行從資助石油和天然氣業務中撤出，其他傳統的融資渠道，如股權投資或基于儲備的貸款（RBL）工具正在枯竭，美國私人石油和天然氣生產商正在尋找一個蓬勃發展的替代資金市場。

這就是已探明及已開發產量（PDP）的證券化，即石油或天然氣生產商在資產支持證券化（ABS）交易中發行債券。換句話說，上游生產商用他們的石油和/或天然氣生產的現金作為抵押，向投資者發行票據。

能源資產證券化

首個能源資產的證券化發生在2019年，但在過去的一年里，隨著許多私人生產商尋求多元化資金來源，它已經迅速得到了普及。

“由石油和天然氣資產支持的證券化有助于使公司的資金來源多樣化，這些公司通常會從更傳統的來源獲得資金，如基于儲備的貸款（RBL）工具、高收益債券的發行或股權投資。”惠譽評級在2020年初表示，當時這種類型的資金是全新的，疫情還沒有壓垮石油需求。

“新發行的交易提供了穩定的現金流，因為耗損率是相當可預測的，這取決于油井的年齡和整體資產的多樣化。”該評級機構在2020年2月時指出。

信用評級公司DBRS晨星在2021年5月表示，即使在疫情引發的油價劇烈波動期間，已探明油氣開發生產（PDP）的證券化顯示出的波動性要小得多，主要是因為商品價格對沖和證券化的結構特征。

惠譽評級公司在2021年9月的一份報告中說，盡管油氣價格波動很大，而且疫情期間運營商破產，但PDP證券化的表現在疫情期間仍然很有彈性。

“大部分產量的必要對沖限制了碳氫化合物價格波動對預期收入的影響。此外，PDP生產的盈虧平衡成本很低，因為大部分的資本支出成本已經發生。”該信用評級機構說。

蓬勃發展的能源ABS市場

根據路透社援引古根海姆證券的數據，在2022年，石油和天然氣資產證券化市場真正開花結果，能源ABS交易的價值比2021年增加了兩倍。今年到目前為止，私人公司已經向投資者出售了39億美元的PDP證券化交易，而去年只有12億美元。

今年還出現了自三年前PDP證券化融資交易開始以來，美國能源生產商最大的一次證券化融資，由其生產資產的一部分作為支持。

這是10月份為天然氣生產商Jonah Energy LLC進行的一筆7.5億美元證券化融資交易，該公司總部位于丹佛，在懷俄明州蘇布萊特縣的Jonah和Pinedale油田運營。該公司通過發行由其部分生產資產支持的7.5億美元全額攤銷票據，成功完成了其第一筆證券化融資交易。

Jonah Energy的資產和業務位于懷俄明州蘇布萊特縣的大綠河盆地內，包括位于Jonah油田及周邊地區的2400多口生產井和13萬多英畝凈地。

該公司總裁兼首席執行官湯姆-哈特說：“我很高興完成了一項長期融資交易，完全償還了我們的抵押貸款，這使我們擁有了強大的資產負債表，以尋求我們的耕地上的重要鉆探機會和可能出現的戰略機會。”

古根海姆證券公司是此次發行的唯一結構顧問、賬簿管理人和配售代理，該公司表示，Jonah Energy公司是迄今為止完成的最大的資產支持證券化項目。

古根海姆證券結構性產品發起團隊的高級常務董事Anuj Bhartiya說，這項ABS交易是迄今為止完成的最大的PDP證券化，也是古根海姆證券為能源行業構建的第三筆“144A交易”（合格的機構投資者私下交易“限制性證券”的權利，每筆交易的下限為50萬美元。同時，證券商不得向個人或不符合規定的投資者出售此類“限制性證券”），反映了行業領導者和市場參與者對能源相關ABS在市場上的適用性的信心。

懷俄明州最大的天然氣生產商PureWest Energy在8月成功完成了第二次資產支持證券化，提供3.65億美元的資產支持票據，該票據由PureWest的部分生產天然氣資產抵押。該交易是在PureWest于2021年11月進行的首次6億美元的證券化之后進行的。

PureWest能源公司預計在2022年第三季度將票據發行的收益，連同PureWest資產負債表上的多余現金，分配給其股權持有人。

律師事務所Sidley Austin LLP的能源金融合伙人Daniel Allison去年在Hart Energy雜志上寫道，石油和天然氣證券化產品對投資者和生產商都有好處。Allison說，投資者有一個相對可預測的石油和天然氣PDP的現金流狀況，所以他們——以及評級機構——認為生產風險是 "一個可容忍的變量"。Allison說，生產者可以利用能源資產證券化來分散他們的資本結構，或者在其他市場不那么有利的情況下利用這一替代市場。

曹海斌 編譯自 油價網

A New Type Of Oil And Gas Funding Is Booming

Oil and gas producers are diversifying their funding sources.

Energy asset securitization is a new type of funding that is quicking gaining in popularity. 

Oil and gas securitization offerings could be beneficial to both investors and producers, Daniel Allison, energy finance partner with law firm Sidley Austin LLP, said. 

As banks have pulled back from funding oil and gas operations and other traditional sources of financing such as equity investment or reserve-based lending (RBL) facilities are drying up, private U.S. oil and gas producers are looking at a booming market for alternative fundin.    

That’s the proved developed producing (PDP) securitization, in which an oil or gas producer issues bonds in an asset-backed securitization (ABS) transaction. In other words, upstream producers use the cash from their oil and/or gas production as collateral for the notes placed with investors.  

Energy Assets Securitization 

The first such energy asset securitization took place in 2019, but it has quickly gained popularity over the past year as many private producers look to diversify their funding sources. 

“Securitizations backed by oil and gas assets help diversify funding sources for companies that would typically access capital from more traditional sources, such as reserve based lending (RBL) facilities, high-yield bond issuance or equity investment,” Fitch Rating said in early 2020 when this type of funding was brand-new and the pandemic hadn’t crushed oil demand yet.

“The newly issued transactions provide stable cash flow as depletion rates are fairly predictable depending on the age of the wells and the overall diversification,” the rating agency noted back in February 2020. 

Even during the pandemic and the volatile prices in 2020 and 2021, oil and gas proved developed producing (PDP) securitizations showed much less volatility, “largely because of commodity price hedges and structural features of the securitizations,” credit ratings firm DBRS Morningstar said in May 2021. 

The performance of PDP securitization remained resilient during Covid, despite high volatility in oil and gas prices and operator bankruptcies during the pandemic, Fitch Ratings said in a report in September 2021. 

“Required hedges on a majority of production volumes limit the effects hydrocarbon price fluctuations have on expected revenues. Additionally, PDP production has low breakeven costs, as the majority of capex costs have been incurred,” the credit rating agency said. 

Booming Energy ABS Market 

In 2022, the oil and gas asset securitization market has really blossomed, with energy ABS deals tripling in value from 2021, according to data from Guggenheim Securities cited by Reuters. So far this year, private firms have sold to investors $3.9 billion in PDP securitizations, up from just $1.2 billion last year. 

This year also saw the single-largest securitized financing for a U.S. energy producer, backed by a portion of its producing assets, since the PDP securitization funding deals began three years ago. 

That was a transaction in October for $750 million securitized financing for natural gas producer Jonah Energy LLC, a Denver-headquartered firm operating in the Jonah and Pinedale Fields in Sublette County, Wyoming. Jonah Energy successfully closed its first securitized financing transaction by offering $750 million fully amortizing notes backed by a portion of its producing assets. 

Jonah Energy’s assets and operations are located within the Greater Green River Basin in Sublette County, Wyoming, and consist of over 2,400 producing wells and over 130,000 net acres located in the Jonah Field and surrounding area.   

“I’m pleased to have completed a long-term financing transaction that completely pays down our RBL, which positions us with a strong balance sheet to pursue the significant drilling opportunities that we have on our acreage and strategic opportunities that may come our way,” Jonah Energy’s President and chief executive Tom Hart said. 

Guggenheim Securities, which was the sole structuring advisor, book-running manager, and placement agent of the offering, said that Jonah Energy’s was the biggest asset-backed securitization completed to date.  

“This ABS transaction, which represents the largest PDP securitization completed to-date and the third 144A that Guggenheim Securities has structured for the energy sector, reflects the confidence of industry leaders and market participants in the suitability of energy-related ABS in the market,” said Anuj Bhartiya, Senior Managing Director in Guggenheim’s Structured Products Origination team.  

PureWest Energy, Wyoming’s largest natural gas producer, successfully closed in August a second asset-backed securitization—after one last year—offering $365 million of asset-backed notes collateralized by a portion of PureWest’s producing natural gas assets. The transaction followed PureWest’s initial $600 million securitization in November 2021. 

PureWest Energy expected to distribute the proceeds from the notes offering, together with excess cash on PureWest’s balance sheet, to its equity holders in the third quarter of 2022. 

Oil and gas securitization offerings could be beneficial to both investors and producers, Daniel Allison, energy finance partner with law firm Sidley Austin LLP, wrote last year in Hart Energy. Investors have a relatively predictable cash flow profile of an oil and gas PDP, so they—and rating agencies—see production risk as “a tolerable variable,” Allison says. Producers, for their part, can use energy asset securitization to either diversify their capital structure or tap this alternative market when others are less favorable, according to Allison.