Refinancing deal for Tullow Oil

Exploration company has increased the size of its credit facility to $750 million and extended its term

The Kingfisher well, Block 3A, jointly owned by Tullow Oil Plc and Heritage Oil Plc, sits at the Lake Albert Rift Basin, in Uganda, is seen in this handout photograph provided to the media on Monday, Jan. 18, 2010. Tullow Oil Plc’s decision to exercise its right of first refusal over assets being sold by Heritage Oil Plc in Uganda was "pretty inevitable," Chief Executive Officer Aidan Heavey said. Source: Tullow Oil via Bloomberg EDITOR'S NOTE: NO SALES. EDITORIAL USE ONLYtullow
The Kingfisher well, Block 3A, jointly owned by Tullow Oil Plc and Heritage Oil Plc, sits at the Lake Albert Rift Basin, in Uganda, is seen in this handout photograph provided to the media on Monday, Jan. 18, 2010. Tullow Oil Plc’s decision to exercise its right of first refusal over assets being sold by Heritage Oil Plc in Uganda was "pretty inevitable," Chief Executive Officer Aidan Heavey said. Source: Tullow Oil via Bloomberg EDITOR'S NOTE: NO SALES. EDITORIAL USE ONLYtullow

Irish-listed exploration company Tullow Oil has refinanced its $500 million (€364 m) corporate revolving credit facility and increased the size of the facility to $750 million. It has also extended the tenor of the facility to April 2017.

Ian Springett, chief financial officer with Tullow Oil plc said that the deal forms "an important piece of our debt capital structure", which also includes $3.5 billion of reserve based lending facilities and $1.3 billion of senior notes, the second tranche of which was priced last week.

“We have taken advantage of currently strong debt markets to increase our bank commitments, further diversify our sources of funding and extend the maturity of our debt. With Tullow also benefitting from strong cash flow from production, the company is well-financed with strong liquidity and considerable financial flexibility,” he said.

According to Tullow Oil, the arrangement is a fully committed, secured and revolving credit facility and replaces the previous facility which was due to expire in November 2014.

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Mandated lead arrangers of the facility are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank, HSBC Bank, ING Bank, Natixis, Société Générale, Standard Chartered Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Bank.

Fiona Reddan

Fiona Reddan

Fiona Reddan is a writer specialising in personal finance and is the Home & Design Editor of The Irish Times