Equinor’s debt strategy is to support the overall financial flexibility of the group and ensure competitive terms and conditions on long-term debt.
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Contacts for debt and credit ratings
About our external debts, loans and bond issuances
Normally the parent company, Equinor ASA, incurs the external debt and then extends loans or equity to wholly owned subsidiaries to fund capital requirements within the group.
Equinor Energy AS is co-obligor or guarantor of existing debt securities and other loan arrangements of Equinor ASA. As co-obligor, Equinor Energy AS assumes and agrees to perform, jointly and severally with Equinor ASA, all payments and covenant obligations for this debt.
Long-term funding is raised when we identify a need for such financing based on our business activities and cash-flows or to pre-fund when market conditions are considered favourable.
Equinor has been a regular bond issuer and Equinor’s current long-term ratings are AA- and Aa2 from S&P and Moody’s, respectively.
Bond issuances* 2011 - 2020 per currency
(Equivalent in USD) Updated 29.05.2020
*Issuance activity under US Shelf, EMTN and separate documentation.
Debt strategy
Equinor’s debt strategy is to support the overall financial flexibility of the group and ensuring competitive terms and conditions on long-term debt.
The key elements:
- Bond issuances, as a main rule, are centralized at the corporate level. Project financing and other structured finance solutions are from time to time considered and applied at subsidiary level and for partially owned legal entities.
- Access to a well-diversified investor base (geographical, maturity and type)
- To limit the refinancing risk, Equinor will seek to maintain a smooth maturity profile with a high “Average Year To Maturity” (9,7 years as of 28 May 2020). Annual redemptions will normally not exceed 5% of capital employed (as of 31 March 2020 equivalent to about USD 2,5 billion) in each of the next five years.
- By issuing both fixed and floating interest rate debt, Equinor’s funding sources become more diversified through reaching a broader spectrum of bond investors.
- Bonds are normally issued at fixed rates in a variety of currencies.
- Pari passu ranking and covenants: Negative pledge to ensure equal treatment of investors. No financial covenants.
Debt programmes
Equinor has established the following debt programmes to ensure financial flexibility across markets and maturities. The company continuously looks to expand the portfolio of programmes, if relevant from a diversification and pricing point of view.
| Latest update | Valid to | Programme | Limit | Credit rating | Utilisation | |
| Moody’s | S&P | 12/31/2020 | ||||
| US Commercial Paper (USCP) | USD 5 billion | P-1 | A-1+ | USD 0.9 billion | ||
| 2020 | 2021 | Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) | EUR 20 billion | Aa2 | AA- | EUR 9.8 billion |
| 2020 | 2023 | US Shelf Registration | Unlimited | Aa2 | AA- | USD 20 billion |
| Separate Documentation | N/A | - | - | USD 0.3 billion | ||
The USCP programme is used for shorter maturities (up to 364 days), while the EMTN Programme and the US Shelf Registration mainly are used for longer maturities.
The different funding programmes ensure that Equinor has sufficient flexibility when choosing the following:
- Maturity
- Currency
- Interest Rate (Fixed or Floating)
- Geographic Market (Europe, USA or Asia)
US Shelf Registration Statement
The registration statement is a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S and it permits multiple public debt offerings without having a separate prospectus for each offering. The registration statement is the base prospectus and will be updated with prospectus supplements for any subsequent debt offerings. The base prospectus is updated every third year.
The EMTN programme
The EMTN Programme was established in 1997 and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Programme ensures Equinor access to non-US markets and is a good complement to the US Shelf Registration.
The Programme will normally be updated on a yearly basis and was last utilised in November 2016.
The EMTN Programme was last updated on 13 May 2020. The programme has a limit of EUR 20 billion.
Debt documentation
Maturity profile
The graph below shows the maturity profile of bonds outstanding as of 9 November 2020
Total long-term bond debt: USD 30,4 billion
Average years to maturity = 9.9 years as of 9 November 2020
Details on debt
As of 28 May 2020 the total remaining long-term bond debt is USD 31.8 billion and split as follows:
Average remaining tenor
Issued bonds split per currency
Financial ratios
Net debt over capital employed (1)
Operating cashflow (2)
Capital expenditure (3)
Dividend per share (4)
Source/Detailed information: 2019 Annual Report on form 20-F
(1) Page 79 (net debt to capital employed adjusted)
(2) Page 157
(3) Page 157
(4) Page 273
Credit facility
Equinor has a multicurrency revolving credit facility of USD 6 billion, including USD 3 billion “swing line” (same day value) option. The facility was signed on 6 May 2021 and is available for 3 years. Equinor has the option to further extend the maturity twice by one additional year. The credit facility is used as a backstop facility for the group’s US CP programme.
There is a sustainability linked financing element included in the RCF loan agreement related to CO2 upstream intensity as published in the Sustainability Report.
| Participating banks: | ||
| Bank of America Merrill Lynch | Barclays | |
| BNP Paribas | CIBC | |
| Citibank | Credit Agricole | |
| Deutsche Bank | DNB | |
| Goldman Sachs | JP Morgan | |
| Jyske Bank | Mizuho | |
| Morgan Stanley | MUFG | |
| Nordea | Santander | |
| Skandinaviska Endkilda Banken | Société Géneralé | |
| Standard Chartered |
Credit rating
A strong credit rating is important to Equinor in order to ensure necessary financial flexibility to support a dynamic strategy through economic and market cycles.
Equinor has credit ratings from Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s and the stated objective is to have credit ratings at least within the single A category on a stand-alone basis. (Current corporate rating includes one notch uplift from Standard & Poor’s and two notch uplift from Moody’s). This rating ensures necessary predictability when it comes to funding access to relevant capital markets at favorable terms and conditions.
Equinor’s current credit ratings are as follows:
| Moodys | Standard & Poor's | |
Long-term rating |
Aa2 |
AA- |
Short-term rating |
P-1 |
A-1+ |
Outlook |
Stable |
Stable |
rating development for Equinor
Historic rating since IPO in 2001
Debt presentations
On this site Equinor post the most current (last 12 months) debt investor presentations in PDF format.
Please check regularly for updates.
Contacts for debt and credit ratings
