A swell of stock market offerings from oil companies and suppliers reveals an oil industry intent on self-finance, as the stream of lending remains just a trickle.

The successful fundraising of Swedish oil company P.A Resources on Tuesday raised 291.5 million Swedish krona ($37 million) and marks another step on the oil industry’s ascent into a period of fewer bank loans, more stock-market splashes.

“We work in a very capital intensive industry, we need to rely on equity, not just debt finance,” P.A. chief exec Ulrik Jansson told Scandoil.com.

In an effort to advance new oilfields and keep exploring, oil companies and suppliers have in just six weeks raised billions of dollars selling shares to the public and their preferred investors, banks included.

Convinced that the value of their shares is tied to “value growth” by the drill bit in Congo and new production in Tunisia, P.A.’s institutional investors in Sweden and Norway have joined the ranks of thousands of others hoping to prop up companies whose fates are entwined with their own. Indeed, after the new well, P.A. resources can now study the effects of from 11,000 barrels per day to 14,000 bpd of production from Tunisia.

In dribs and drabs, oil companies are announcing fundraising plans. Survival means not waiting for far-off bank recovery. Tuesday also saw New Orleans’s McMoRan Exploration Co. start a public offering of some $90 million in common stock and $50 million in convertible preferred stock worth $1,000 per share.

A week ago, offshore-Cameroon-focused BowLeven succeeded in raising $114 million in a common stock offer that showed ordinary investors were desperate to try to build value.

The trend is expected to continue, and last week Nordea boss Carl Steen said the financial crisis is not over, and he expected shipping companies to begin announcing fundraising drives in the coming weeks.

It's largely only existing projects and day-to-day operations being financed.

“For completely new projects, finance is particularly challenging,” said Seadrill financier and Ship Finance Management chief exec Lars Solbakken.

Tags: P.A. Resources