Pacific Drilling Gets Funding for Two Drillships

Pacific Drilling S.A. sign a $1 billion senior secured credit facility agreement to finance construction of the Pacific Sharav & Pacific Meltem.

The term loan made pursuant to the credit facility will have a maturity of 5 years from the delivery date of the Pacific Meltem. A portion of the funding will be provided before delivery of the vessels, with all drawdowns from the facility subject to satisfaction of customary conditions precedent. The transaction was led and structured by Citibank and DNB, and supported by the Norwegian export credit agencies Garanti-Instituttet for Eksportkreditt (GIEK) and Eksportkreditt Norge AS. Also acting as Mandated Lead Arrangers were ABN AMRO, ING, SEB and Standard Chartered Bank.

We are pleased to announce the signing of this credit facility and appreciate the efforts of the lending group in enabling us to meet our goal of securing long-term financing for our 6th and 7th drillships,” stated Pacific Drilling CEO Chris Beckett. "Our strong relationships with leading commercial banks and export credit agencies should allow us to balance our financing sources and costs as we continue to grow our asset base."

Pacific Drilling currently operates four drillships under customer contract, and has one drillship on order and three drillships under construction at Samsung, two of which are under customer contract.

Legal counsel for the company was Vinson & Elkins LLP, and legal counsel for the lenders was Holland & Knight.