Ecobank to Arrange $300 Million Ghana Refinery Loan

Ecobank Transnational Ltd., the Lome, Togo-based lender, said it will “arrange and syndicate” a $300 million facility to finance the debt of Ghana’s sole oil refinery.

Ecobank’s investment branch, Ecobank Development Corp., was contracted by the Ghanaian government to “advise on the financial restructuring of Tema Oil Refinery,” Chief Executive Officer Arnold Ekpe said in a statement published in the Accra- based Ghanaian Times today. Ecobank’s Ghanaian unit will also act as an adviser.

The advisers will review the refinery’s debt and arrange another facility of $300 million to “strengthen Tema Oil Refinery’s balance sheet,” Ekpe said.

The state-owned refinery, based about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the capital, Accra, has been out of operation since early this year for maintenance and recently because of difficulties it is having in sourcing supplies of crude. The refinery has a capacity of 45,000 barrels-per-day.

Ghana is set to become one of Africa’s newest oil exporters in late 2010 when production begins at the offshore Jubilee field, which was discovered in June 2007 and has potential resources of as much as 1.8 billion barrels, according to Tullow Oil Plc.

Ecobank Development Corp. was co-adviser on Ghana’s $750 million sovereign bond and lead adviser on its sale of Ghana Telecom to London-based Vodaphone Plc., according to the statement.