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By Bloomberg

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have the biggest exposure to energy companies among banks, according to Citigroup Inc. analysts, which may make them more vulnerable to oil that’s at a five-year low.

Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ granted about 64.9 billion euros ($81 billion) of syndicated loans to the oil and gas industry from 2012 to December 2014, while JPMorgan loaned about 58.7 billion euros, according to a report today by Citigroup analysts led by Ronit Ghose. They’re followed by Wells Fargo & Co.’s securities unit with 54.4 billion euros of loans, Citigroup said.

“In the past three years, U.S. banks have been three of the top five syndicated lenders to the global oil and gas sector,” said Ghose in the note. “Japanese and Canadian banks also feature strongly in syndicated loan tables.”

Oil prices plunged about 45 percent this year as a surge in shale drilling lifted U.S. output to the fastest pace in three decades as global demand slows. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries including Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter, have resisted calls from producers such as Venezuela and Ecuador to reduce output to abate the price fall.

Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International Plc, the London based unit of the Japanese bank, this year joined JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank AG and Morgan Stanley in cutting back on commodities activities as regulators seek to toughen rules and curb speculation.

DNB ASA, Norway’s biggest lender, and Credit Agricole SA have the highest exposure among European banks to energy measured as a percentage of shareholder equity, Citigroup said.