Eland Oil & Gas receives loan facility from Standard Chartered Bank

Eland, an oil & gas production, development and exploration company operating in West Africa with a principal focus on Nigeria, has satisfied all the conditions precedent to access its US$22 million loan facility with Standard Chartered Bank.

Drawdown of the facility is now available to the company to allow Elcrest Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd, Eland's joint venture company, to continue to develop OML 40.

The company has mandated Standard Chartered Bank to coordinate its US$75 million reserve based lending facility and is targeting signing the facility by year end.

The OML 40 licence lies within the Niger Delta, approximately 75 km north-west of Warri and covers an area of 498 km². It has production, booked developed and undeveloped reserves and oil export for 30,000 blpd comprising a flow station and an export pipeline. In addition OML 40 contains five undeveloped fields; Abiala, Adagbassa Creek, Gbetiokun, Polobo and Ugbo.

George Maxwell, CEO of Eland Oil & Gas commented:

"Entering the debt phase of financing is a key milestone for both Eland and its shareholders. It allows Eland and its stakeholders to push on with the further development of our assets without the requirement for equity funding.

Furthermore, in a current economic environment of falling oil price, where financing and capital expenditure plans are being cut or deferred, the commitment from Standard Chartered to coordinate the raise of such a material debt facility by the end of the year further validates the significant value of the OML 40 license."

Nigerian crude oils are typically a high quality, light oil grade referred to as “sweet”, which trades at a premium to Brent because of its high gasoline content and relatively low processing costs.