Financing the Petroleum Industry in an Energy Transition Landscape

The objective of this study is to discuss the reasons for financing the petroleum industry in an energy transition landscape and the structures that could be used to finance this industry while stimulating energy transition. This article is grounded mainly in scholarly literature from law and economics and regulatory law and places them in the perspective of ESG and energy transition literature. The main methodology adopted for this study was review and discussion of scholarly work. The results obtained indicate that since the shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is a long-term process that requires changes to infrastructure, policy, and market dynamics, and that traditional regulatory tools often struggle to effectively support this transition, using financing instruments connected to the petroleum industry is crucial to stimulate the required sustainability goals, particularly considering that the performance of the petroleum industry is key to the energy transition. The implications of this study are significant for scholars, policymakers and private agents. The petroleum industry is one of the most capital-intensive industries in the world and anything that affects its financial capacity impacts its behavior and may be used as a tool to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.