Arab News, Tuesday, Oct 12, 2021 | Rabi Al-Awwal 6, 1443
Saudi Aramco taps banks for $12-14bn gas pipeline loan: Reuters
Saudi Arabia:
Saudi Aramco has asked banks
to arrange a loan expected to be in the $12 billion-14 billion range that it
plans to offer to buyers of its gas pipeline network, sources said, as the oil
giant advances plans to raise funds from asset sales.
Aramco could raise at least $17 billion from the
sale of a significant minority stake in its gas pipelines, sources have
previously told Reuters. The stake would be offered with a loan financing
package already in place, worth about 80 percent of the price.
Banks that financed a $12.4 billion acquisition of
the company's oil pipelines earlier this year received a request for proposals
from Aramco last week, said three sources familiar with the matter.
That deal, which included all of Aramco's existing
and future stabilised crude pipelines, was backed by $10.5 billion financing
from a large group of banks including Citi, HSBC and JPMorgan.
Aramco did not immediately respond to a request
for comment on the new financing for gas pipelines. It is working with JPMorgan
and Goldman Sachs on the gas pipeline deal, sources have said.
Reuters reported in August that companies that
have been in talks for Aramco's gas pipeline assets include Global
Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Brookfield, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC,
European gas infrastructure owner and operator SNAM, as well as China's Silk
Road, Chinese state-backed investment fund CNIC Corp, South Korea's sovereign
wealth fund Korean Investment Corp (KIC) and NH Investment & Securities.
Potential buyers are expected to submit bids at the end of October, said one of
the sources.
Earlier this year Aramco, similar to Abu Dhabi
National Oil Co (ADNOC), used a lease-back agreement to sell a 49 percent stake
of newly formed Aramco Oil Pipelines Co to the buyer and rights to 25 years of
tariff payments for oil carried on its pipelines.