Update: BP signs loan agreement for Tangguh project

(Adds details on the third paragraph)

The Tangguh consortium led by British energy giant BP Plc has signed an agreement with six banks to provide loans for the Tangguh LNG project in West Papua.

?The financing agreement was signed yesterday (Monday). The details will be announced on Thursday,? Edi Purwanto, the Deputy Head for Financial and Economic Affairs at oil and gas upstream authority BPMIGAS, said on Tuesday.

Later on Tuesday, BPMIGAS? chairman Kardaya Warnika explained that the six banks are Japan?s Mizuho, which agreed to provide a loan of US$105 million, Tokyo-Mitsubishi ($150 million), Royal Bank of Scotland ($113 million) and Bank of China ($288 million) and Italy?s Intesa San Paolo ($113 million) and Norway?s DnB Nor ($115 million).

The six banks offered a total of $1.6 billion in loans but the consortium only needed $884 million.

The loan agreement is the second to be signed by the consortium. In August last year, the consortium signed the first loan agreement to raise $2.6 billion in funds to finance the project.

Tangguh is expected to come onstream by the end of next year and will produce 7.6 MTPA of LNG in the following year. (Godang)