UK bank NatWest has removed some prohibitions on financing oil and gas producers, under specific circumstances, including reversing a ban on finance for oil and gas majors unless they had a "credible", Paris Agreement-aligned transition plan in place.
The bank has applied new risk assessment criteria for the energy and supply sector, which it said "acknowledges that oil and gas will continue to play an important yet declining role in energy supply in the medium term". It has removed a ban it previously applied on renewing, refinancing or extending lending to finance oil and gas exploration, extraction and production. It has also reversed a previous prohibition on upstream oil and gas companies where the majority of their assets being financed are based outside the UK.
NatWest said that it will continue to ban direct financing for exploration of new oil and gas reserves. It also retains its commitment not to finance exploration, development and production of oil from oil sands or in Arctic waters, as well as ultra-deepwater oil and gas production, and fracking in the UK.
The bank plans to "engage with and support this sector, rather than disengage prematurely", and to support investment in renewables and "low-carbon solutions".
It aims by 2030 to have moved away from any customers with coal production, coal-fired generation or coal-related infrastructure. The bank's exposure to coal customers in 2025 remained steady on the year, at £600mn ($818.5mn).
NatWest has set new emissions reduction targets. Among these is a 2030 goal to reduce the physical emissions intensity of the bank's financing activity related to oil and gas production by 13pc, against 2023 levels. The new goals are "aligned with a 2050 net zero pathway", the bank said.
NatWest aims to reach net zero by 2050 across its financed emissions, assets under management and operational value chain. It also has a goal to "at least halve the climate impact" of its financing activities by 2030, from 2019 levels, and achieved a 39pc reduction over 2019-24.
The bank exceeded its existing target to provide £100bn in climate and sustainable finance between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2025, delivering £110.3bn over that timeframe. It has set a new goal, to provide £200bn of climate and transition finance between 1 July 2025 and the end of 2030 — of which it provided £19bn in the second half of 2025. The terminology has been altered to remove the sustainability phrasing, as that covered social finance elements as well as "green" finance.
NatWest's climate-related lending — not including sustainability-linked loans or residential mortgages — from 1 July 2021 to the end of 2025 totalled £31.9bn. Of this, over half went towards renewable energy and sustainable transport.
