DUBAI (Reuters) - Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp, said on Saturday it had received an additional $1.5 billion (1 billion pound) loan, raising a previous debt it took last November to $2.5 billion.
The new funding will be used to finance the company's current and future projects and international expansion plans, Kufpec said in a statement on Kuwait's state news agency KUNA.
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi-UFJ, HSBC Plc (L:HSBA), JP Morgan, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) (KW:NBKK) and Royal Bank of Scotland (L:RBS) acted as underwriters, joint book runners and initial mandated lead arrangers for the loan, the company said. JP Morgan and NBK also acted as joint coordinators.
In November 2014, Kufpec said it had signed a $1 billion loan. Reuters has reported that Kufpec had launched the five-year amortising term loan into syndication.
Kufpec, which is responsible for exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas outside Kuwait, said it was aiming to raise its output to 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day with reserves of 650 million barrels of oil equivalent by 2020. It is active in 15 countries, with 63 projects in the international upstream sector, it added.