Oil trader Gunvor has launched a US$500mn borrowing base secured revolving credit facility to purchase crude oil and feedstock for the group’s newly-acquired refinery in Belgium.

ING and Rabobank are the two bookrunning mandated lead arrangers on the facility.

Gunvor acquired the Antwerp-based refinery, previously the Independent Belgian Refinery (IBR), in May this year. The acquisition was a part of the firm’s strategy to diversify from being a pure trading operation, Gunvor says in a statement.

The refinery has a processing capability of more than 100,000 barrels of oil a day, and storage capacity of more than 1.2 million cubic metres.

Gunvor was last in the market with a US$635mn oversubscribed syndicated revolving credit facility with 28 international and local banks in June this year.

The group also signed an oversubscribed US$635mn syndicated revolving credit facility in April this year, which drew new support from local banks in the Asia Pacific region.