Seplat Petroleum completes refinancing of its $200m reserve-based lending facility

Charles Abuede

Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Nigeria’s leading indigenous energy company, has announced the successful refinancing of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Westport Oil Limited, in the tune of $100 million for its reserve-based lending (RBL) facility that was due November 2023 with a new five-year $100 million reserve-based lending facility due March 2026.

Seplat in a statement signed by Edith Onwuchekwa, Company Secretary and General Counsel and filed to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) revealed that the RBL carries initial interest of Libor + 8 per cent payable semi-annually and is scheduled to commence repayment from March 2023.

According to the statement, “Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc (“Seplat” or the “Company”), a leading Nigerian independent energy company listed on both the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange, announces that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Westport Oil Limited, has successfully refinanced its existing $100 million reserve-based lending facility due November 2023 with a new five-year $100 million reserve-based lending facility due March 2026 (the “RBL”). The RBL carries an initial interest of Libor + 8% payable semi-annually and is scheduled to commence repayment from March 2023. The RBL includes a $75 million accordion to accommodate further commitments in the future.”

However, the completion of the refinancing comes following the company’s successful completion of its flagship ANOH project with the Nigerian Gas Company. Also, with major gas processing units expected to arrive in Nigeria in Q3 2021, the company has said that installation of gas processing units will commence before the end of the year with the mechanical completion and pre-commissioning in the first quarter of 2022 and first gas flowing to customers before the end of H1 2022, at a lower than expected cost of up to $650 million but substantially below the $700 million budget initially stated at Final Investment Decision (FID).

Meanwhile, the leading Nigerian independent energy company posted weak numbers after reporting a N30.7 billion loss from contracts and customers for the year 2020 due to pandemic induced pressures during the year 2020.