Stanbic, Sumitomo Mitsui, IBC Selected As Financial Advisors For East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline

Standard Bank Uganda alongside Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. will be tasked with raising $3.55 billion required for the Hoima to Tanga 1,445-kilometer (898-mile) pipeline after they were contracted by Uganda, Tanzania and French Oil giant Total who is also the lead joint venture partner on the crude oil export pipeline..

The two banks will look into various available options including both debt and loans according to Stanbic Bank Uganda chief executive officer Patrick Mweheire in an interview with Bloomberg.

“A lot of activities are going on, a lot of tenders are being made” and expectations are that the final investment decision for the project will be made in the first quarter of next year, Mweheire said.

Imperial Bank of China (IBC) on the other hand has been selected by joint venture partner China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

Earlier information had indicated that Uganda and Tanzania were looking to turn to international lenders to raise 70 percent of the capital expenditure with the remaining amount would be  raised through  equity by the three joint venture partners as well as the two national oil companies Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) and Uganda National Oil company.

The financial advisors wil be doing the borrowing in dollars to ensure there is no currency mismatch.

Talks are also ongoing on the special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will be tasked with construction, ownership and operations of the pipeline. The SPV will also negotiate with shareholders, sign agreements on financing, contract shippers to transport oil to international markets and above all pay back the lenders from the project’s returns.

In early August President Yoweri Museveni and his Tanzania counterpart Joseph Pombe Magufuli commissioned the construction of the East African crude oil pipeline. Earlier in May both states had signed the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) represented by Uganda’s Eng. Irene Muloni, Minister of Energy and Mineral Development and Tanzania’s Hon. Prof. Palamagamba John A.M Kabudi, Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs.

In Uganda Standard bank has been involved in other energy projects including the $900m Bujagali dam and, most recently and the Karuma hydropower project estimated to cost $2.2 billion. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. on the other hand was in 2015 the lead arranger for financing in Uganda’s purchase of machinery for construction, and vehicles for transporting construction materials manufactured by Japanese companies such as Komatsu Ltd., Sakai Heavy Industries, Ltd., Tadano Ltd., Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, and Kyokuto Kaihatsu Kogyo Co., Ltd.