DETERMINANTS OF CAPITAL STRUCTURE IN NIGERIAN OIL AND GAS SECTOR

Abstract

Subject matter: The Oil and Gas sector no doubt is Nigeria’s topmost foreign exchange earner and determines the country’s gross domestic products (GDP) as well as the yardstick for Nigeria’s national annual budget metrics. The prime of place of this sector’s performance makes its funding (capital structure) very vital to the respective companies and overall performance of the economy. Goal: This study therefore examines the determinants of capital structure decisions in the Oil and Gas sector. Tasks: Ultimately, the outcome of this study would benefit the Oil and Gas companies in making their capital structure decisions on preferred source of capital (loans or equity or a combination), the sector as a whole in terms of capacity and the regulatory authority in their assets performance monitoring. Method: The investigation has been performed using panel data procedure for a sample of seven Oil and Gas companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange during 2008–2019. The study uses leverage as the dependent variable and five explanatory variables namely, liquidity, size, tangibility, non-debt tax shield and profitability. The study employed infoview (9.0) statistical software which assisted greatly in the understanding of the behaviour of variables used and the final results. Results: The results show that Liquidity has a negative relationship with leverage unlike other variables that have positive and relationship with the dependent variable. The relationship established between liquidity and leverage confirms that most of the companies under review look inwards in their financing activities (and may consider external financing for critical expansion and tax savings), our findings further reveal that the relationships between the variables is in tandem with the pecking order theory. Conclusions: The research concludes that there exists a relationship between leverage (capital structure) and the various determinants above. The research recommends that policy makers should consider the restructuring of the equities market to pave ways for more participatory financing especially now that the investors’ confidence is gradually building up, develop the bonds market and also seek flexible conditions for accessing loans especially to the larger firms in the oil and gas industry.