Qatargas 4 financing finalised

Qatargas 4 is a joint venture between wholly-owned subsidiaries of Qatar Petroleum (70%) and Royal Dutch Shell plc ("Shell") (30%). The project will sell 7.8 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell for export primarily into the North American gas market.

The total amount of financing raised for the project has exceeded US$4 billion which is the second largest project financing raised for Qatar Petroleum projects after Qatargas 2. The financing consists of different facilities provided by 30 international, regional and Qatari banks. It also includes co-financing facility provided by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell. All the facilities have a maturity of 15.5 years.

Mr. Faisal Al Suwaidi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Qatargas Operating Company and the CEO of Qatargas 4, complimented all the financial institutions participating in this financing and said: "Qatargas 4 truly represents the vision, dedication and excellence of the Qatargas family to world-scale LNG projects and fully aligns with our commitment to help fuel the world with clean energy. The financing has been sourced from a wide group of financial institutions at very competitive pricing."

Thanking the lenders and the advisers for their hard work in making this financing a great success, Mr. Abdulrahman Al-Shaibi, Head of Project Finance of Qatar Petroleum and Chairman of the Qatargas 4 Finance Committee, said: "The great success of the financing of Qatargas 2, Rasgas II/3, Qatargas 3, and now Qatargas 4 demonstrates the confidence of the financing market in Qatari projects. The financing market treats these projects as an expansion of the Qatari LNG industry, which is reflected both in the terms of the financing (more akin to a corporate instead of traditional project financing) and its competitive pricing."

He expressed particular appreciation for Shell's support on the financing, which contributed to achieving a historically low financing cost for QP projects.

Andy Roberts, Shell Gas & Power Executive Vice President, Finance added: "Today's announcement reflects Shell's confidence in Qatar as a place to invest and our confidence in the risk profile of the Qatargas 4 project. We are delighted to have played a key role in an extremely successful financing - Qatargas 4 epitomises the qualities and vision of both partners, as well as our commitment to support Qatar as it consolidates its leadership position on the global LNG stage."

Calyon acted as the Documentation Bank and is the Bank Facility Agent and Intercreditor Agent. Citigroup is the Security Trustee and Account Bank. International Bookrunners are Barclays Capital and RBS. Regional Bookrunners are APICORP and Qatar National Bank.

Qatargas 4 was advised by RBS and White & Case. The banks were advised by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.