Treasury Told the World Bank to Stop Blacklisting Oil and Gas Production. Poor Countries Need Power, Not Lectures
Secretary Bessent asked the Bank to retire its ban on upstream oil and gas finance and to graduate China. Ajay Banga said the Bank will back "gas where appropriate" and nuclear, but announced no change to the ban. In our view, the next step is ending the upstream ban outright.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS OPINION | By Clara Hughes, Chief Opinion Editor | October 17, 2026 | 6-min read Imagine telling a farmer in Nigeria or a factory owner in Ghana that the bank meant to fight poverty will help pay for solar panels, but will not touch the gas field under his own country's soil. That has been World Bank policy. This week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Bank to end it. In a statement for the Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Bangkok, he said the World Bank Group "should formally retire its prohibition on financing upstream gas and oil" [1]. On Oct. 16, World Bank President Ajay Banga said the Bank will back "gas where appropriate," though he announced no change to the upstream ban [2][3]. In our view, Washington is right, and "where appropriate" should mean wherever a poor country decides it needs the power. Key Takeaways Bessent's statement, dated Oct. 14, called for the Bank to drop its ban on upstream oil and gas finance and take a "technology-neutral approach" to energy [1]. He also welcomed planned phase-outs of World Bank lending to China and Poland, calling them "long overdue" [1]. Banga told the annual meetings on Oct. 16 that homes, mines, factories,