The Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and ICBC provide part of a syndicated US$150 million revolving credit facility extended to SASOL to refinance the Lake Charles Chemical Project (Linked to Project ID#86969)

On June 7, 2019, eleven banks including Bank of China (BoC), China Construction Bank (CCB), and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) signed a US$1.8 billion credit facility agreement with SASOL — a South African chemical and energy company — for the Lake Charles Chemical Project. The US$1.8 billion credit facility is comprised of a US$1.65 billion syndicated term loan (see Project ID#86969) and a US$150 million revolving credit facility (captured in this project). Both facilities have a tenor of five years. The interest rate of the loan is unknown. The purpose of the loan is to refinance in full the outstanding Lake Charles Chemical Project asset finance loan. The Lake Charles Project is located in Louisiana, USA, and is an undertaking by Sasol Financing that recently grew in cost. As of 2019, the project has an estimated capital cost of US$11.6-11.8 billion. When built, it will be an integrated ethane cracker and downstream derivatives complex. The project has been fully commissioned and has started up. As of the end of December 2018, engineering and procurement activities were substantially complete, and construction progress was at 84%. In November 2020, the Lake Charles Chemical Complex is completed, and the final cost of the whole project was US$12.9 billion. It can produce up to 420,000 tons of polyethylene each year using technology developed by Exxon Mobil. The Lake Charles Chemical Complex is composed of two operating entities: Sasol’s Lake Charles East Plant and Sasol’s Lake Charles West Plant. In October 2021, SASOL announced that it has begun an ethylene and steam turnaround at the Lake Charles Chemical Complex East Plant. The syndicate is composed of Bank of America, Mizuho Bank and SMBC (global coordinators, bookrunners, and mandated lead arrangers), BNP Paribas and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (mandated lead arrangers), and Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Citibank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and JP Morgan (lead arrangers).

Additional details

For the time being, AidData has estimated the contribution of the Chinese state-owned banks by assuming that the eleven lenders contributed equal amounts ($13,636,363.6) to the loan syndicate.

Number of official sources

3

Number of total sources

8