EximBank's $4.7bn loan to Total's project on Block One: the inside story

摘要

Lyman Armstrong, head of the upstream oil and gas division at the United States' EximBank, has been given the job of providing the after-sales service on the $4.7bn loan granted by the bank for Total's LNG project on Mozambique's Block 1. The last adjustments to the loan agreement were approved by the bank in mid-May but Armstrong has been keeping track of the loan, which is intended to boost American exports to Mozambique, since 2012. Of the total, $1.8bn will go to offshore installations and the rest to onshore facilities on the Afungi peninsula in the province of Cabo Delgado. These installations will be built by joint venture CCS, to which US engineering group McDermott International belongs. On 27 May, Armstrong was invited to take part in a webinar set up by Africa Oil Week organiser Hyve Group under the title, "The promise of Mozambique: Updates on Building a Natural Gas Hub". He made no secret of the difficulties experienced by Eximbank in setting up the loan, which was originally applied for by the former owner of Block 1, American group Anadarko. Finally approved after seven long years, the operation will be the second biggest carried out by EximBank since 1993 and the first on this scale to be carried out in Africa.