Shoreline Renews 100,000bpd OML 30 Output Push With $500m Financing

By Adedapo Adesanya

Shoreline Natural Resources is making another push to raise oil production from Nigeria’s OML 30 above 100,000 barrels per day, a target the company has pursued for years, with a new $500 million Islamic financing package arranged by Qatar Islamic Bank set to fund drilling activities.

The financing will support drilling activities on the onshore oil block, where Shoreline holds a 45 per cent interest.

Shoreline has pursued the 100,000 barrels per day production target for several years, although output from OML 30 has been reported at between 45,000 and 70,000 barrels per day at various periods.

The latest funding is expected to provide backing for a renewed push to increase production from the asset, one of Nigeria’s largest onshore oil blocks in the Niger Delta.

Shoreline acquired its 45 per cent stake in OML 30 from Shell in 2012 through a joint venture with Heritage Oil.

The company also owns and operates the Trans Forcados pipeline, which transports crude from the block to the export terminal.

The $500 million facility arranged by Qatar Islamic Bank under an Islamic financing structure does not use conventional interest payments and instead links the lender’s returns to an underlying asset or revenue stream. The terms of the facility were not disclosed.

The transaction is among the largest debt financings recorded in Nigeria and marks increased participation by Gulf-based financial institutions in the country’s oil and gas industry.

It follows a $530 million financing package secured by Shoreline in 2018 involving Vitol, Farallon Capital Management and four Nigerian banks.

In June, the company also secured a $200 million dual-tranche facility from the African Export-Import Bank, with most of the proceeds supporting a $980 million oil field development project at Hassi Bir Rekaiz in Algeria.

Shoreline also acquired producing oil assets in the United States earlier this year, expanding the group’s upstream interests beyond Nigeria and Algeria.

Despite failing at its previous attempts to raise output from OML 30 to 100,000 barrels per day, Shoreline has continued to invest in the asset and its supporting infrastructure.