Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, June 17 -- Yemen LNG has obtained $2.8 billion in financing for construction of its LNG liquefaction plant on the Gulf of Aden at Belhaf, including $1.1 billion from Total SA and $1.7 billion from export agencies in France and South Korea.
Altogether, eight banks—BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, Calyon, ING Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, SumitomoMitsui Banking Corp, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Citigroup—acted as mandated lead arrangers for the $1.1 billion part of the package, and Coface of France, Kexim of South Korea, and various export agencies guaranteed the remaining $1.7 billion.
JGC, Technip, and KBR in September 2005 received a contract to build the two-train liquefaction plant, which will have a capacity of 6.7 million tonnes/year, as well as a 320-km pipeline and two 144,000-bbl storage containers. The project will receive gas from Block 18 in Marib.
Yemen LNG has signed long-term contracts to supply South Korea's Kogas with 2 million tonnes/year, Suez with 2.55 million tonnes/year, and Total Gas & Power with 2.15 million tonnes/year.
French major Total is the project leader with a 39.62% share. Its partners in the project are US-based Hunt 17.22%, the Yemen Gas Co. 16.73%, SK Corp. 9.55%, Kogas 6%, Hyundai Corp. 5.88%, and Yemen's General Authority for Social Security and Pensions 5%.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].