SBM Offshore N.V. has together with its Joint Venture partners, QGOG Constellation and Mitsubishi Corporation, secured a Limited Recourse Project Loan for US$ 1.05 billion to finance the construction of the FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela.
The Facility has been designed to allow acceding Banks to join the transaction up to a maximum amount of US$ 1.2 billion on a pari passu basis.
The loan will be repaid over a 10 year period starting at First Oil expected in September 2014 and benefit from a competitive pricing package arranged on a Club Deal basis with reputable International Commercial Banks.
“We are delighted to have closed this loan facility for a record 1.05 billion US$ with our partners for this very large FPSO for Petrobras. We are very grateful for such strong support from our lenders in the current difficult environment in the banking market. This arrangement confirms the financing capacity available for good projects and supports our strategic focus to develop our core FPSO business.” Bruno Chabas, CEO of SBM.
Background
SBM Offshore in April announced that contracts for the twenty year charter and operation of FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela for the north part of Sapinhoá field (former Guara Area) development in the pre-salt area, offshore Brazil, were executed with GUARA BV and with BM-S-9 Consortium.
The consortium is established by the companies Petrobras (Operator, 45%), BG Group (30%), and Repsol Sinopec (25%).
The unit will be owned and operated by a Joint Venture comprising of affiliated companies of SBM Offshore and QGOG, and Mitsubishi Corporation.
The FPSO, once completed will be the world’s largest FPSO and will be moored at the Sapinhoá field offshore Brazil.
The Sapinhoá field is located in block BM-S-9 in the Santos basin at approximately 300 kilometres offshore and 2,140 metres water depth. The FPSO will include topside facilities to process 150,000 bpd of production fluids, associated gas treatment for 6,000,000 Sm3/d with compression and carbon dioxide removal, hydrogen sulphide removal, and a water injection facility for 180,000 bpd.
[mappress] Press Release, August 3, 2012