How indebted are national oil companies?

As oil prices plummet, so will revenues and government transfers of national oil companies (NOCs). Should this go on, some NOCs may face insolvency, debt restructuring, and costly government bailouts.

​Using latest data (2018) from NRGI’s National Oil Company Database, I visualized the ratio of debts-to-assets of NOCs with available data.

Key takeaways:

• ​Average debt-to-asset ratio among assessed NOCs in was at 59%;

• Among NOCs producing above 500,000 boe/day, eight has debts more than half their assets lead by Pemex of Mexico, Petrobras of Brazil, and Rosneft of Russia.

• The bottom three are ONGC of India, Petronas of Malaysia, and Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia.