Bank of China contributes $30 million to $290 million syndicated revolving loan tranche to Oil Search for general corporate purposes in June 2017

Project narrative

On June 22, 2017, Oil Search— an oil and gas exploration company in Papua New Guinea who has a 29% stake in the PNG LNG project — signed a $600 million non-amortizing revolving credit facility (RCF) agreement with a syndicate of 14 banks for general corporate purposes. The borrower was expected to use the proceeds of the RCF for capital expenditures, equity and investment commitments, and acquisitions. The syndicate was comprised of the following 14 banks: ANZ Bank, CBA Bank, National Australia Bank (NAB), Westpac, ING Bank, SMBC, Natixis, Mizuho, Bank of China, ABN AMIRO Bank, MUFG, Societe Generale, Bank of South Pacific, and JP Morgan. The loan was divided into two tranches: one $310 million revolving unsecured facility and one $290 million revolving secured facility and one $290 million revolving secured facility— to which Bank of China contributed $30 million. The $290 million facility carried a maturity period of 5 years, an interest rate of 3.845%, and was covered by political risk insurance. It replaced a $500 million corporate facility that was set to expire in October 2017.