Oman refinery firm borrows $910m from local, Gulf banks

State-owned Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Co (ORPIC) has taken out a 350 million rial ($910 million), ten-year loan from local and regional banks, part of which will be used to fund expansion projects, the company said on Friday.

The money will be used to “meet general corporate requirements and certain projects currently being considered”, chief financial officer Nazar al-Lawati told Reuters without revealing financial terms or naming the projects.

The syndicated loan was arranged by Bank Muscat while the consortium included Bank Dhofar, National Bank of Oman, Bank Sohar, the local operation of Qatar National Bank and other banks.

The refining and petrochemical company has a range of projects underway or planned as Oman pours billions of dollars into industrialisation. It has continued spending on such projects despite the plunge of oil prices since last year, which has pushed the state budget deep into deficit.

The projects include an upgrade of ORPIC’s Sohar refinery, a product pipeline between Muscat and Sohar, and construction of the $3.6 billion Liwa plastics production complex.

“ORPIC plans to raise syndicated financing to fund the Liwa Plastics Industrial Complex, for which it has started discussions with potential export credit agencies and plans to launch (the project) to commercial banks in July this year,” Lawati added.