Oman Oil Closes $2 Billion Loan Financing

Oman Oil Co, the Omani state-owned petroleum firm, has completed a $2 billion loan financing, a source close to the matter said.

The company’s funding efforts are part of a wider push by the government to raise international finance to reduce pressure on its budget, which has been hit by low oil prices.

Oman Oil has signed a revolving credit facility (RCF) of $1.15 billion, with a five-year maturity, and has slightly amended the terms of an existing $850 million revolving loan that matures in 2019, the source said.

The $850 million loan was part of a dual-tranche $1.85 billion financing the company raised in 2014. The new $1.15 billion revolver refinances the $1 billion tranche of the 2014 loan, which was due for redemption this year.

The loan was self-arranged, the source said, meaning the borrower coordinated the transaction by putting together a group of banks.

The consortium includes Credit Agricole (XCA.F), Deutsche Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, Natixis (KN.PA), Societe Generale (SGE.SG), Standard Chartered (SCBFF) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, banking sources told Reuters last May.

Oman Oil’s revolving loan is just one of a number of fundraising exercises. In a joint venture with Kuwait Petroleum International, Oman Oil is raising billions of dollars for the development of the Duqm Refinery, a project expected to have a processing capacity of 230,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

It is also considering a secured loan which could go up to $1.5 billion, bankers said.

One of the company’s subsidiaries, Oman Oil Facilities Development Company, has recently closed a $640 million loan for Salalah LPG, a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) extraction project.

That loan, with a 15-year maturity, was provided by a group of banks comprising Ahli Bank of Oman, Ahli United Bank, Apicorp, Bank Muscat, Bank Sohar, Qatar National Bank, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered, bankers said.

(By Davide Barbuscia)