According to a Reuters exclusive news written by Davide Barbuscia and Yousef Saba, Qatar Petroleum (QP), a state-owned oil and gas company, has hired a couple of international banks for a multi-billion-dollar debut public bond sale by the end of June. This comes in response to lower oil and gas prices canalizing Gulf energy firms to raise cash.
BofA Securities, Citi, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan and MUFG have been appointed, as claimed by two-source, by Qatar Petroleum to run the deal of up to $10 billion.
In the subsequent process, it is expected that more banks will be involved in the deal. Moreover, this bond issue of Qatar Petroleum is expected to be a jumbo deal. This planned debut public bond issue of Qatar Petroleum is likely to be one of the region’s biggest this year.
Qatar Petroleum is one of the leading mega actors in the world energy market. It is the world’s top liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier. Furthermore, the company announced at the beginning of this year that Qatar’s LNG output will be boosted by %40 a year by 2026, with a new $28.7 billion investment. This capacity expansion will increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity to 110 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 77 mtpa.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the falling energy prices last year, the Gulf energy companies have been looking forward for new methods to raise money. Other energy companies, including Saudi Arabia’s energy giant Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), in the Gulf have raised cash in this period. Now, Qatar Petroleum is preparing to do the same thing. Before that, it has also sold bonds via private placements to raise money.
