State-owned Qatar Petroleum has reportedly hired a group of banks to help with a planned sale of dollar-denominated bonds in order to fund its giant LNG expansion project.
The banks would arrange a four-tranche issuance of dollar-denominated bonds, according to a report by Reuters on Monday.
The LNG behemoth hired Citi and JPMorgan to coordinate the issue. They, along with BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank , Goldman Sachs, HSBC, MUFG, QNB Capital and Credit Suisse, would arrange investor calls starting on Monday, Reuters said in the report.
Moreover, the bond sale would comprise conventional tranches of five, 10 and 20 years, as well a 30-year Formosa portion.
Formosa bonds are sold in Taiwan by foreign borrowers and denominated in currencies other than the Taiwanese dollar, the agency said.
Up to $10 billion
The document did not give any indication on the size of the deal but Reuters has previously reported that the planned debt sale could raise up to $10 billion.
The move comes months after QP announced a final investment decision on its $28.75 billion North Field East project.
Under the North Field East project, QP will build four mega trains with a capacity of 8 million tonnes per year in the Ras Laffan complex.
This first phase of the expansion project will increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 to 110 mtpa.
QP also plans a second phase to further boost capacity to total 126 mtpa by 2027 as well as additional expansions.
The company’s unit Qatargas already operates in total fourteen LNG trains at Ras Laffan.
In addition, QP’s CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi recently said that Shell, TotalEnergies, and ExxonMobil were bidding to take a stake in the company’s giant LNG expansion project.
He said QP had received offers for double the equity available to potential partners in the bidding process for the North Field East project.