XL Group Acquires AMC
Aberdeen based technology and engineering company XL Group announced on Monday it has acquired Artisan Measurement & Control Limited (AMC) in a move to add expertise, products and services in calibration, measurement, tanker loading, blending, metering systems and instrumentation to its growing list of integrated engineering services.Formed in 2002, Wiltshire-based AMC has an annual turnover of £4 million ($5.2 million) and 12 employees. Under the deal, which was supported by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), AMC will operate as a division of XL Group…
Barclays Rejects Arctic Drilling
U.K.-based international bank Barclays announced a new energy policy that significantly restricts the bank’s financing for the exploration or extraction of oil and gas in the Arctic.The policy rules out funding for companies seeking to drill in the Arctic Refuge as well as other climate change threats.According to the British multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in London, arctic oil and gas refers to new exploration and extraction of oil and gas in the area within the Arctic Circle which is subject to sea ice…
Verus Petroleum Mulls 12-Fold Production Growth
Aberdeen, UK-based Verus Petroleum has secured a 12-fold increase in its production – from 1,500 to 18,000 barrels per day in less than a year – with the closing of three recent acquisitions on the UK Continental Shelf.A press release from the petroleum exploration and production services provider said that it has recently completed three significant acquisitions; an interest in the Babbage gas field acquired from Premier Oil on 6th December, on the back of completing transactions to acquire Cieco Exploration & Production (UK) Limited and Equinor’s Alba field interest in November.The private equity backed independent operator said that these three deals…
RBS to Cease Financing of 'high-carbon energy' projects
Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland said on Tuesday it had tightened restrictions on project finance and general lending for high-carbon energy projects and companies, joining other banks like HSBC in shoring up its climate policies. RBS said it would no longer directly finance new coal-fired power stations or thermal coal mines, oil sands or Arctic oil projects and unsustainable vegetation or peatland clearance projects. It also said it would no longer lend money to mining companies that generate more than 40 percent of their revenues from thermal coal or power companies that generate more than 40 percent of their electricity from coal.
Trafigura Backs Out of Tanker Foray
Trafigura has sold five oil vessels to a unit of China's Bank of Communications , ending the trading house's move into owning tankers, the company said on Friday. Under the deal, the five medium-range tankers, ordered by Trafigura in 2013 from a shipyard in China, were sold to Bank of Communications Financial Leasing Company Ltd and subsequently leased back to the Swiss trading house. Financial terms were not disclosed. "The ships were bought at low entry levels and we saw an opportunity to sell now. While we have a significantly growing cargo programme it is not a must for us also to own the steel," Trafigura global head of wet freight Rasmus Bach Nielsen said in a statement.
LPC-Vitol Signs $8bn Loan Refinancing
Geneva-headquartered energy trader Vitol has signed an US$8bn loan refinancing of credit facilities agreed in October 2015, the company announced on Wednesday. The transaction includes a 12-month maturity extension to the company's existing US$7.076bn three-year revolver. The company's existing US$924.2bn 364-day revolving credit facility has also been refinanced for the same amount after the facility was increased from the launch amount of US$750m. The loan was launched into syndication on August 22 and supported by a total of 55 banks. Mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners on the financing were ABN AMRO…
Ithaca Energy Completes RBL Redetermination
Ithaca Energy Inc. announced having successfully completed its planned semi-annual reserves based lending (“RBL”) facilities review and continues to maintain in excess of $100 million of funding headroom ahead of planned first hydrocarbons from the Greater Stella Area in the third quarter of 2016. The Company commenced deleveraging the business in 2015 with net debt reducing from a peak of over $800 million in the first half of 2015 to $630 million at 31 March 2016. Following the RBL redetermination process the Company’s available bank debt capacity is over $430 million prior to Stella start-up.
Trafigura Launches US$4.275bn Loan Refinancing
Commodity trading house Trafigura has launched syndication of a US$4.275bn multicurrency revolving credit facility to refinance its existing US$5.3bn flagship European facility that was signed in March 2015. The loan comprises a 364-day tranche and a three-year tranche. A London bank meeting will be held on January 20 and the financing is expected to close in late March, the company said on Thursday. Active bookrunners on the facility are Lloyds Bank, Soceiete Generale and Unicredit Bank, while Rabobank, ING Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland are non-active bookrunners.
Changes on BHP Billiton Board
BHP Billiton Chairman, Jac Nasser, today announced a number of changes to the BHP Billiton Board of Directors. Anita Frew has been appointed to the BHP Billiton Board as an independent Non-executive Director, effective as of 15 September 2015. Ms Frew has over 18 years’ experience as a director and chairman on public company boards across a range of global sectors, including chemicals, engineering and finance. She is currently Chairman Designate of Croda International Plc, the speciality chemicals group and Deputy Chairman of Lloyds Banking Group Plc.
Shell Signs $15.3b Bridge Loan
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has agreed a 10.07 billion pound ($15.28 billion) bridge loan from a group of relationship banks backing its 47 billion pound takeover of smaller rival BG Group (BG.L), the company announced on Friday. The two-year loan replaces a 3.025 billion pound interim bridge loan that was provided in early April by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The bridge loan will be used, along with existing cash, to cover the 13.2 billion pound cash portion of the cash and share deal. Mandated lead arrangers on the financing are Banco Santander…
Ithaca Energy: Extended Bank Debt Facilities
Ithaca Energy Inc. announces that it has executed extended and simplified bank debt financing facilities totaling $650 million, providing the Company with significant funding headroom ahead of first hydrocarbons from the Greater Stella Area in the second quarter of 2016. Both RBL facilities are based on conventional oil and gas industry borrowing base financing terms, with loan maturities in September 2018, and are available to fund on-going development activities and general corporate purposes. The combined interest rate of the two bank debt facilities…
Santander Ends Ex-IMF Chief Rato's Contract
Spain's Santander is disbanding its 12-strong international advisory board, a spokesman said on Friday, in a move that ends ex-IMF chief Rodrigo Rato's tenure at the bank and is the highest-profile decision yet from new boss Ana Botin. Rato, who served as head of the International Monetary Fund, as Spain's economy minister and who ran lender Bankia until its state rescue in 2012, was hired by Santander as an adviser in September 2013. He was recently accused of improper management by magistrates investigating allegations that dozens of former executives at Bankia and its predecessor Caja Madrid used company credit cards for personal expenses. Rato has denied any wrongdoing.
Divorce Costs Could Sour Scotland's North Sea Hopes
Scottish nationalists are betting $2.5 trillion of hydrocarbons trapped miles beneath the North Sea could bankroll an independent Scotland, but winning control of the European Union's largest oil reserves would be no blank cheque. Scotland says the bulk of Britain's North Sea oil and gas reserves are in its waters, while London says any division would be subject to negotiations should Scots vote to end their 307-year-old union with England in a referendum on Sept. 18. Oil is the punch in Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond's pitch for independence…
