Qatar Petroleum has closed a US$6.6bn financing with a syndicate of over 30 banks and export credit agencies (ECAs) to fund the Barzan gas project.
The project will be financed with up to 30% equity while the remaining 70% will be in the form of a syndicated loan, expected to total US$7.2bn.
The loan comprises a commercial bank facility of US$3.34bn, a US$850mn Islamic facility and US$2.55bn worth of ECA financing.
Italy’s ECA Sace confirms to GTR that Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil will take US$4bn in commercial debt, split across both international and Islamic tranches, with a further US$2.6bn coming in export credit agency (ECA) backed loans.
A total of US$600mn of the ECA financing was provided by Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), and is insured by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance. Kexim provided US$700mn, US$300mn of which was bank-funded against a Kexim guarantee.
Sace insured US$355mn in support of the deal’s Italian contracts which include Nuovo Pignone and Cameron Italy.
All of the debt will mature over a 16-year tenor, with pricing on the uncovered commercial bank tranche breaking down as follows: 130 basis points (bps) pre-completion, 175 bps post-completion through to year eight, 190 bps from year nine through to 12, and 200 bps for the remaining three years.
The Islamic tranche follows the same pricing, but is packaged differently. The Kexim covered tranche is priced at 130 bps pre-completion, 170 bps thereafter, while the Sace-covered tranche is 130 bps pre-completion and 150 bps following that. The Nexi-covered tranche is 130 bps all the way through, Sace tells GTR.
RBS acted as the project’s financial adviser, and White & Case acted as legal adviser to the sponsors. Allen & Overy acted as counsel to the ECAs, while Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom served as counsel for the commercial banks.
“This is the conclusion of a complex transaction that required significant project management and successful cooperation over many months and showcases our oil and gas project financing expertise," says Philip Stopford, head of White & Case’s WEMEA project and infrastructure finance group.
“The abundance of natural resources, combined with the region's sustained strong economic growth, makes Qatar an attractive prospect for investors.”
The project will comprise three off-shore platforms, a pipeline system for the extraction and transportation of gas from the North gas field and an on-shore LNG plant for the processing of gas.
The Barzan gas project is the world’s largest project financing to close in 2011 and one of the largest oil and gas project financings ever concluded, Sace says in a statement.
The deal’s mandated lead arrangers are as follows:
Al Khalij Commercial Bank
Apicorp
ANZ
Bank of America
BTMU
Barclays Capital
Citi
Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ)
DnB NOR
Doha Bank
International Bank of Qatar (IBQ)
JP Morgan Chase
HSBC
KfW-IPEX
Mizuho
National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD)
Qatar National Bank
Riyadh Bank
RBS
Samba Financial Group
Siemens Financial Services
Standard Chartered
SMBC
Union Bank of Qatar
The following banks will lend on the Islamic debt tranche:
Barwa Bank
Masraf Al Rayan
Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB)
Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB)
Crédit Suisse
WestLB
Reader Comments