Sovcomflot Group, Sberbank CIB Sign Credit Facility Agreement
Sovcomflot Group and Sberbank CIB have signed a 14-year $340 million credit facility agreement to finance the construction of three Arctic shuttle tankers for the Novy Port project (project operator: Gazprom eft).
Novy Port is one of the largest oil and gas condensate deposits on the Yamal peninsula in Russia. The vessels will serve as part of project infrastructure designed to enable year-round shipment of crude oil from an offshore loading terminal in the Gulf of Ob. The commercial production from the field will start in 2016. The transaction involves Sberbank Europe AG, a subsidiary bank of PJSC Sberbank.
Commenting on the transaction, Nikolay Kolesnikov, Chief Financial Officer of Sovcomflot, said, "The signing of the credit facility agreement creates an important precedent for further development of shipping industry financing by Russian banks. With this new financing Sovcomflot will have raised a total of over $900 million of long-term debt finance from commercial banks and export credit agencies in the course of 2015."