Case study: Coral South FLNG

Portland acted as ECA Advisor on the US$ 4.675 billion limited-recourse debt financing of Coral South FLNG, an offshore Mozambique gas production and liquefaction development based on a floating LNG vessel sponsored by Eni, CNPC, Kogas, GALP and ENH.

The project comprises the development of an offshore gas field connected to a floating gas processing, LNG liquefaction, storage and offloading vessel located above the field with a capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per annum.

Portland was responsible for advising the debt providers including Bank of China, China Development Bank, China Eximbank, ICBC, KEXIM, KSURE, SACE and BPI (COFACE).

The Portland team of Geoff Knox, Harry Philp, James Benbow and Iain Hackston were responsible for:

• Running the financial model on behalf the ECAs and conducting sensitivity analysis and breakeven analysis for the project, with particular reference to crude and gas benchmarks.
• Assisting in transaction structuring and negotiation of the term sheet.
• Working with the lenders’ market, technical and insurance consultants.
• Assisting the ECAs with their credit approval processes.
• Assisting with negotiation of loan documentation.
• The transaction closed in Q4 2017. In December 2017, ExxonMobil announced the acquisition of a 25% working interest in the project from Eni.

The transaction has been voted 2017 Middle East & Africa Oil & Gas Deal of the Year by Project Finance International.

To discuss this further, contact Geoff Knox at geoff.knox@portlandadvisers.com