Morocco refiner Samir gets $200 mln loan from Glencore

Morocco refiner Samir gets $200 mln loan from Glencore Thu, Dec 27 11:48 AM EST RABAT, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Morocco's sole oil refiner Samir has obtained a 24-month loan of $200 million via an agreement with Glencore Energy, the company said in a statement on Thursday. The company mandated Natixis and Arab Petroleum Investments Corp to arrange the deal, which includes exporting part of its production to Glencore Energy during the agreement period. "The success of the arrangement is a sign of international investor and banks' confidence in Samir, and its capacity to provide petroleum conforming to international standards," the statement added. Samir started in November to use a $180 million syndicated structured murabaha framework agreement signed in April with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corp. In August, it began commercial use of a new crude distillation unit with a processing capacity of 80,000 barrels per day. The expansion brought Samir's total processing capacity to 200,000 bpd. Morocco is a net energy importer. ============ Qatar's Gulf International signs $170 mln loan to fund buy Mon, Jun 04 02:52 AM EDT DUBAI, June 4 (Reuters) - Qatar's Gulf International Services (GIS) has signed a $170 million sharia-compliant loan mainly to fund its purchase of Qatar Petroleum's fully-owned subsidiary Amwaj Catering Services, according to a bourse filing on Monday. GIS, which has interests in several sectors, including transport, insurance and oil services, said in April it was buying the unit for a provisional price of 353.1 million riyals ($97 million). The Islamic loan will be used to fund the purchase of Amwaj and to subscribe to a capital increase by GIS' majority-owned subsidiary Gulf Drilling International Co, the company said. GIS owns 70 percent in Gulf Drilling, according to the drilling service provider's website. Qatar Islamic Bank, BARWA Bank, Qatar International Islamic Bank and Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp) provided the financing, the statement added. ($1 = 3.6407 Qatar riyals) (Reporting by David French; Editing by Dinesh Nair) ================ Bahrain set to open $600 mln LNG terminal tender Mon, Oct 25 06:41 AM EDT * Bahrain about to tender LNG terminal * Costs at least $600 mln * Bahrain needs to import gas to meet rising demand MANAMA, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Non-OPEC producer Bahrain has almost finalised a tender inviting companies to build a $600 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, an executive from the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) said on Monday. "The RFP (request for proposals) will be out today or tomorrow," Essa al-Ansari, general manager at Bapco for major engineering projects told reporters on the sidelines of a conference. He said it would take the 14 international oil firms that are qualified to bid around 16 weeks to submit their final offers. The terminal would cost at least $600 million, Ansari said, with a capacity of 400 million cubic feet per day (cfd), which may be expanded to 800 million cfd. Bahrain, like its Gulf Arab neighbours, has seen a rapid increase in natural gas consumption as its economy has grown with a petrodollar-fuelled boom in the region. It consumed 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas per day in 2007 and expects consumption to rise to 2 billion cubic feet per day in about 10 years, a gap the country needs to partially close through imports. Bapco acts as a consultant for the project and monitors engineering work, said Ansari. "We have to move fast, by 2014," he said. "If all decisions are taken promptly according to the plan then this is achievable," he said when asked about the proposed timeframe. A project to build an estimated $200 million oil storage facilities at Bahrain's Sitra island was cancelled as it was not viable economically, Ansari added. The project, which was called Independent Terminal Bahrain (ITB) was to be a joint-venture between Bahrain's National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA), Kuwait's Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) and Arab Petroluem Investments Corporation (APICORP). (Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; editing by Keiron Henderson) ===========