Oil and gas bankers confront their own energy transition

Oil and gas bankers confront their own energy transition

Can oil bankers learn renewable tricks

They may need to in this climate, judging by the experience of Douglas MacKenzie, a Citigroup banker who has spent decades advising global energy giants on fossil fuel deals since joining Goldman Sachs as an associate in 1985.

"I cover Big Oil. I'm a supermajor guy," the 63-year-old said. "Now all of my clients are focused on the transition."

He decided he had to get up to speed with greener energy sources in 2018 and is now EMEA chairman of Citi's new Natural Resources and Clean Energy Transition team, which was launched last March, part of a wider pivot by investment banking towards helping energy clients move away from fossil fuels.

Oil and gas dealmakers, once the darlings of banking, must plot their own transitions to lower-carbon careers.

Many are being retrained and repurposed as major banks including Citi, Credit Suisse and Societe Generale merge them into bigger teams that include clean power and sustainability specialists.

"I spend 12 hours a day reading," said MacKenzie, whose past deals include BP Plc's $48.2 billion merger with Amoco in 1999.

"As an oil and gas banker I would stay current with geopolitics, get up in the morning and click the BBC website to