State-owned Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has successfully raised $4bn from a group of international financial institutions.
In an environment of continued low global oil prices, the financing will be used to support PDO’s activities which include the construction of major new oil and gas facilities providing long-term economic benefits for the Sultanate.
The borrowing will take the form of a five-year pre-export facility which was provided by a syndicate of international banks. HSBC Bank Oman acted as the sole international financial advisor.
The loan was priced at 160 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). Throughout the planning and syndication phases, PDO worked closely with Oman’s Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Oil and Gas.
PDO’s managing director Raoul Restucci has said, “PDO has robust growth plans in place and we are determined to stay the course and to deliver on our long-term ambitions. The money raised will help us to finance our business plans, as well as create more jobs and training opportunities for Omanis.”
“This competitive new source of funding will enable us to reduce reliance on Government funding, so that it can redeploy resources to other areas of the economy,” he added.
PDO plans to invest more than $20bn over the next 5 years to sustain the Company’s long-term hydrocarbon output.
Examples include the Rabab Harweel Integrated Project which is the Company’s largest capital project and will enable the development of 240mn barrels of oil and 100mn barrels of condensate along with the export of 1tn cubic feet of non-associated sale gas when production starts in 2019.
By ‘staying the course,’ PDO will also be able to sustain its commitment to creating jobs and training positions for Omanis through its National Objectives programme.
For its debut visit to the international financial markets PDO initially planned to raise around $2.5bn in the form of a club deal with a small group of lenders.
However, due to strong interest from the wider banking market, the facility was significantly oversubscribed to $4.3bn. PDO elected to upsize the facility to $4bn with the difference being used to scale back banks commitments.
