By Modupe Gbadeyanka
An oil deal worth $530 million has been concluded between Nigerian firm, Shoreline, and European trading house, Vitol.
With the agreement completed on Thursday, Vitol will make funds available to Shoreline to further develop OML 30 in Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta region as well as refinance existing debt.
It will also give Shoreline the opportunity to finance an oilfield in exchange for access to some of the 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil it produces.
Chairman of Shoreline, Mr Kola Karim, explained that the agreement will enable his firm step up gross production to as much as 100,000 bpd over the next year.
At the moment, Shoreline, which controls 45 percent interest in the field, disclosed that a total of 50,000 bpd is produced from the field, which has an estimated 1 billion barrels of oil reserves.
It was gathered that the financing was arranged with support from Vitol, as well as Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, Union Bank, FCMB and Farallon Capital Management.
Vitol has done other pre-financing deals for preferential access to oil and refined products in Kazakhstan, Iran and elsewhere.
Adedapo Adesanya