Banks reassessing credit lines to some US energy firms

Houston

BANKS are responding to tumbling crude prices by trimming the value of oil reserves tied to credit lines, possibly causing a cash crunch for some highly leveraged US exploration and production firms.

With US crude production still rising and the oil cartel Opec showing no willingness to cut output to curb global oversupply, there is little to suggest that prices will rebound soon from a 40 per cent slide since June.