The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) has signed an agreement with Russia’s leading oil producer Lukoil committing the US agency to US$130mn in financing for a project that will enable Russia to expand its oil export capacity in a cost-effective manner.

Opic will provide the loan guarantee to HBK Fund LP, a Delaware limited partnership based in Dallas, for a loan the fund will make to an indirect subsidiary of OAO Lukoil.

The project consists of the construction and operation of a crude oil and petroleum products export terminal on the western coast of Vysotsky Island on the Gulf of Finland, north of St. Petersburg. Opic financing will specifically cover the first two phases of the project, including construction of rail links and upgrades, two tank farms and a marine jetty, as well as dredging in the Gulf of Finland to allow for the passage of crude and product tankers.