Energy companies were major issuers of junk bonds to finance expansion. But now they are in trouble as capital has dried up and oil prices have cratered.
An oil pump jack and a flare burning excess gas at a drill pad in the Permian Basin in Texas.Credit...Angus Mordant/Reuters
Wall Street supercharged America’s energy boom of the past decade by making it easy for oil companies to finance growth with cheap, borrowed money. Now, that partnership is in tatters as the coronavirus pandemic has driven the fastest collapse of oil prices in more than a generation.
An oil pump jack and a flare burning excess gas at a drill pad in the Permian Basin in Texas.Credit...Angus Mordant/Reuters
Wall Street supercharged America’s energy boom of the past decade by making it easy for oil companies to finance growth with cheap, borrowed money. Now, that partnership is in tatters as the coronavirus pandemic has driven the fastest collapse of oil prices in more than a generation.