By Anjuli Davies
LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Swiss bank Credit Suisse has hired James Peterkin, from Britain's Barclays, tohead its oil and gas team in Europe, the Middle East and Africa(EMEA), according to a memo seen by Reuters on Monday.
Peterkin, who has been co-head of EMEA oil and gasinvestment banking at Barclays since 2009, will join CreditSuisse in March and be based in London, according to the memo,whose contents were confirmed by a Credit Suisse spokeswoman.
With crude prices at 11-year lows, the world's biggest oiland gas producers are being forced to cut spending, sell assets,shed jobs and delay projects as the oil slump shows no sign ofrecovery - all offering potential work for investment banks.
M&A activity in the energy and power sector was up just 1percent in 2015 compared to the previous year, totalling $591billion, Thomson Reuters data shows, but some bankers predictmore activity as companies seek to restore revenues.
Peterkin, who has also worked at Schroders and Citibank inthe oil and gas sector, replaces James Janoskey who left theSwiss bank in June 2015 to take up a similar position at WallStreet firm JPMorgan.
Credit Suisse has been building up its oil and gasinvestment banking team, with the appointment of John Ciolek inAugust 2015 from JPMorgan and James Van Milder in July 2015 fromBank of America Merrill Lynch, both based in New York. (Reporting By Anjuli Davies; Editing by Alexander Smith)