Yamal LNG secures €425 mln credit facility

Novatek-led Yamal LNG project secured 14-year credit facilities in the amount of €425 million ($476.8 million) with Raiffeisen Bank International and Intesa Sanpaolo.

The insurance coverage for the loan is provided by the Swedish export credit agency EKN and the German export credit agency Euler Hermes.

Yamal LNG has previously received financing from the National Welfare Fund of Russia. It also signed agreements on credit lines with Sberbank and Gazprombank, as well as with the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the bank Intesa Sanpaolo with insurance coverage by the Italian export credit agency SACE and the French export credit agency COFACE.

Speaking of the agreements with the European banks, Yamal LNG’s general director, Evgeniy Kot said it will allow the project to optimize its credit portfolio.

“We have already raised sufficient amount of financing and further reduction of average cost of debt will increase the economic value of the project for our shareholders,” he said.

The $27 billion Yamal LNG project is expected to ship its first cargo before October this year.

The liquefied natural gas project in the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia is expected to produce a total of 16.5 million tons of LNG per year. Almost all of the volumes from the project have already been contracted.

Shareholders in the Yamal LNG project are Novatek, as the operator with a 50.1 percent stake, CNPC and Total with 20 percent stake each and China’s Silk Road Fund with a 9.9 percent stake.

1 EUR = 1.12193 USD

LNG World News Staff