Eric Watkins
OGJ Oil Diplomacy Editor
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 5 -- The Dolphin Energy consortium raised $4.1 billion to refinance debt, help fund construction of a gas pipeline, and pay for the refinancing fees.
Dolphin said the $4.1 billion will be used to repay a $3.45 billion loan secured in 2005, to provide 70% of the construction costs of the 244-km, 48-in. Taweelah-Fujairah pipeline, and to pay for fees related to the refinancing.
Dolphin's majority shareholder, the Abu Dhabi government's investment firm Mubadala Development Co (51%), reportedly played a key role in raising the financing, while partners Total SA and Occidental Petroleum (24.5% each) are co-lending the project $1.2 billion.
Last month, Australia’s export credit agency EFIC said it was guaranteeing Gasco’s $6.5 million contract to supply and supervise installation of two heaters for the pipeline.
Gasco’s client is Russia’s Stroytransgaz, which was awarded a $418 million engineering, procurement, and construction contract for the pipeline in June 2008.
The Taweelah-Fujairah gas pipeline will link Dolphin Energy's gas-receiving facilities at Taweelah, on the coast of Abu Dhabi, with the ADWEA Power and Water Desalination Plant at Qidfa, in Fujairah.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].