Bank of China contributes to $403.8 million syndicated loan for Cakua Offshore Gas Compression Station Project

On April 3, 2020, Servicios Compresión de Gas Ca-Ku-A1 S.A.P.I. de C.V. — a special purpose vehicle and joint venture of a subsidiary of ACS Group (Dragados Offshore de México, Dragados Offshore, Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios, Dragados Industrial and Avanzia Instalaciones) [95% equity stake] and CKA1 Holdings [5% equity stake] — signed a $403,855,944 10-year senior secured loan agreement with a syndicate of 10 banks for the Cakua Offshore Gas Compression Station Project. The borrower was expected to use the loan proceeds to partially refund Cakua’s development costs, refinance existing bridge loans, and fund the remaining costs of the Cakua Offshore Gas Compression Station Project. Participants in the syndicate include Bancomext, Bank of China, Banobras, Intesa Sanpaolo, ING, Mizuho, MUFG Bank, Nacional Financiera, Norinchukin Bank, and Societe Generale. Mizuho served as the Coordinating Lead Arranger, Bookrunner, Administrative Agent, and Depositary and Collateral Agent. The purpose of the project is to construct a greenfield 450 MMcf/d offshore natural gas compression station located on the Ku-Maloob-Zaap (“KMZ”) oilfield in the Bay of Campeche, Mexico. The project involves the construction of 4 turbo compressor units and 3 turbo generators with a daily processing capacity of 450MMCF. The mechanical and process design for the gas compression station was designed to compress sour gas to be reinjected to assist oil and gas extraction. The Ku-Maloob-Zaap field currently produces around 750,000 barrels of oil per day and represents around 50% of the country’s crude oil production. The Mexican government under President López Obrador has pledged to increase oil production by 1.0MMbpd by 2024, after Pemex’s production halved between 2004 and 2019. The KMZ oilfield itself is owned by PEP, which fully contracted the project under an 11-year take-or-pay Compression Services Agreement. Dragados Offshore México is responsible for engineering, procurement, construction, installation, operations, and maintenance.

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the Ca-Ku-A1 Gas Compression Project. 2. CKA1 Holdings is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlantica Yield. 3. The Ku-Maloob-Zaap oil field, in shallow waters off Tabasco and Campeche states, about 105km from Cuidad de Campeche, has over the past decade become Pemex’s most productive. 4. The monetary value of Bank of China’s contribution to the loan syndicate is unknown. For the time being, AidData assumes equal contributions ($40,385,594.40) across the ten members of the syndicate. 5. Mizuho served as the collateral agent for the loan. When lenders take collateral as security for their loans, a collateral/security agent is often appointed to enforce rights against the collateral in the event of the borrower's default under the loan. As such, AidData assumes that the $403.8 million syndicated loan for Cakua Offshore Gas Compression Station Project was collateralized.

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