Mandated lead arrangers ABN Amro, BNP Paribas and Soci&eaute;té Générale Lalaben, a special purpose vehicle, set up to fund a prepayment advance in favour of Azerbaijan Limited (AzACG), a whole owned subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (Socar).

 

The facility is structured as a six-year amortising deal, raised to finance the refurbishment and upgrade of certain gas producing assets. The loan was drawn down on July 23, and syndication was significantly oversubscribed and closed this month. It marks another success for BNPP, with the bank having arranged major crude oil pre-export syndicated term loan facilities in favour of upstream subsidiaries of Socar totaling in excess of US$1bn over the last two years.

 

AzACG was established as a Cayman Islands special purpose vehicle company to hold and manage Socar’s 10% participating interest in the agreement on the joint development and production sharing for the Azeri and Chiraw Fields and the Deep Water Portion of the Gunashli Field in the Azerbaijan Sector of the Caspian Sea (ACG fields).
The ACG fields are some of the largest oil fields in the world, and BP is in charge of the development and operation of these fields.