AWE boosts its loans by $81M

Australia’s AWE Limited has announced a new four-year, A$400 million ($324.6 million) secured multicurrency syndicated bank loan facility to replace its existing A$300 million ($243.5 million) unsecured loan facility.

Chief Financial Officer of AWE, Ayten Saridas, said that “the new facility further strengthens the
company’s capacity to deliver its expanding portfolio of major growth projects and take advantage of emerging opportunities”.

“AWE’s ability to increase its bank facility by A$100 million to A$400 million in the current low oil price environment reflects the strength and stability of the company’s asset portfolio and the resilience of the underlying projected cash flows,” Saridas said.

Over the past 12 months, AWE has added two projects to its development portfolio: the Senecio/Waitsia gas project in the onshore Perth Basin and the Lengo gas project offshore Indonesia.

“The extended term of the facility through to 2019 will provide greater certainty of funding through a period of significant growth. Another key outcome has been to increase the flexibility of financing options available to the company,” Saridas said.

“Having a diverse production base of oil and gas assets that generate strong cash flows has allowed AWE to continue to invest in appraisal and development projects, despite challenging market conditions. Following establishment of this new facility, AWE is now in an even stronger position to deliver on its goal to more than double annual production to 10 mmboe by the end of 2018,” added Saridas.

The company said that the loan syndicate includes leading Australian and international banks with Westpac Banking Corporation as the mandated Lead Arranger and Bookrunner.

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