Shoreline Group, a Nigerian oil producer, plans to almost double its crude output after agreeing a $530 million finance deal with an international oil trader and local lenders, Bloomberg reports.
Shoreline will seek to boost production to between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels a day this year, Chief Executive Officer Kola Karim said. The company currently pumps about 55,000 barrels a day. The funds are being provided by an international oil trader, a specialist fund and four local lenders, said Karim, who declined to name them until the deal is signed later on Thursday.
“The deal entails refinancing Shoreline and providing us working capital to expand production,” he said Thursday in a phone interview from Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub.
Shoreline is one of several Nigerian producers that bought fields in the oil-rich Niger River delta after international producers including Royal Dutch Shell Plc withdrew amid persistent attacks on infrastructure. The company didn’t pump oil for a year following an attack on the Forcados terminal in February 2016. Flows resumed after the link was reopened in June last year.