North Energy renews exploration financing deal

Norwegian oil company North Energy and the fully owned subsidiary North E&P signed on Tuesday an agreement to renew their exploration financing facility for the period 2016-17.

The group of banks providing the facility comprises of DNB and SEB, with the first of these banks acting as coordinator and agent. The facility is limited up to NOK 950 million ($110.9M).

The oil company explained that the facility provides bridge financing to cover the tax value paid by the Norwegian government on exploration expenses in a year until payment is received from the Petroleum Tax Office in the following year.

North Energy recently announced a completion of its transaction for an exploration and production company, also from Norway, Explora Petroleum.

After the completion, Explora was renamed North E&P, and North Energy was to convert to a holding company, whilst all petroleum activities in the merged company are supposed to be held in North E&P.