By Eduard Gismatullin
Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Tullow Oil Plc, the U.K. explorer with the most licenses in Africa, said it’s seeking fresh borrowing as part of negotiations on a $2 billion debt financing package with banks and is selling shares to fund projects in Ghana and possibly Uganda.
The company is in talks to refinance about $1.4 billion of existing debt, increasing the borrowing to about $2 billion by using its stake in the Ghana offshore venture, its biggest asset, as collateral, Chief Executive Officer Aidan Heavey said today. The company is also selling new shares equal to as much as 9.1 percent of ordinary share capital to fund developments.
Tullow “had an outstanding exploration success,” Heavey said on a conference call with reporters. “We were blown away by support” from banks and shareholders, he said.
London-based Tullow plans to invest about $3.2 billion to develop the Jubilee field offshore Ghana and produce the first oil there in 2010. Tullow is targeting about 4 billion barrels of oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Guinea off Ghana and Ivory Coast.
The company has also been exploring fields in Lake Albert in Uganda. It may invite a partner to share the project costs and build a pipeline to export oil from Uganda through Kenya’s port of Mombasa.
“We feel we’ve exceeded reserves to make the Uganda project commercial” following the exploration campaign, Heavey said.
Tullow plans to invest 600 million pounds ($830 million) in projects this year, he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net
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