By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Oando Energy Resources (OER) said on Wednesday it made a $238 million prepayment of certain loan facilities, which it utilised for the $1.5 billion acquisition of the ConocoPhillips Nigerian Oil and Gas Business in July, 2014.
“The company successfully realised $234 million by resetting its crude oil hedge floor price from an average of $95.35 per barrel to $65.00 per barrel on 10,615 bbls/day for the next 18 months and another 1,553 bbls/day for a further 18 months until January 2019,” Oando said.
According to the leading exploration and production player in the Nigerian Oil and Gas sector, the proceeds from the hedge unwind/reset (in addition to $4 million from cash in hand) were applied to prepay certain loan facilities.
It affirmed that $188 million applied to the $415 million in the reserves base lending facility, resulting in a balance of $227 million.
Also, OER added that $51 million applied to the $338 million in the corporate facility, resulted in a balance of $287 million.
“The decline in global crude oil prices led to a substantial gain for our company and we have 10,832 bbls/day average productions hedged for the balance of 2015 and 8,000 bbls/day for 2016,” said Pade Durotoye, CEO OER.
Durotoye further affirmed that cashing out some value from this hedge will enable the company reduce its outstanding loans and leverage by $238 million, saving the company $65 million in interest payments over the remaining term of the loan facilities, whilst preserving a floor of $65 per barrel.
“With 50 percent of our oil production hedged and 65 percent of our production being Gas committed to stable long term priced contracts, we are well positioned with strong cashflow to meet our obligations and aspirations through this current oil price down cycle,” Durotoye said.
The exploration and production firm disclosed that as at the ConocoPhillips acquisition date of July 30, 2014, it had a total debt of approximately $900 million (inclusive of a $100 million structured facility provided by Afrexim). “After taking account of previous amortisations and the hedge-related prepayment, the total debt of OER currently stands at $615 million,” the company said.
