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EBRD makes US$ 12.5 million loan to drilling company in Siberia
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) today announced a
US$ 12.5 million (ECU 9.8 million) loan to a company to be formed as a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Parker Drilling Company to finance the construction
and operation of three drilling rigs in Western Siberia. Of this loan, the
Bank will retain for its own account an amount not exceeding US$ 6.8 million.
The subsidiary of Parker Drilling Company, one of the leading US-based
contract drilling companies, will operate the rigs under contract for White
Nights Joint Enterprises, a joint venture formed by Varyeganneftegaz (50%), a
large Soviet oil and gas concern; Phibro Energy Inc. (38%), a division of
Salomon Brothers Inc.; and Anglo-Suisse (USSR) (12%), a privately owned
exploration and production company headquartered in Houston, Texas.
White Nights has been operating for a year in the West Varyegan and Tagrinsk
oil fields, 1,500 km north-east of Moscow. It is currently producing around
25,000 barrels of oil per day and generating substantial hard currency
revenues. With the use of the three drilling rigs and other modern oilfield
services, it expects to increase production to 150,000 barrels a day, a level
it could not reach with existing Soviet technology.
The Bank's loan will help to transfer modern and winterized drilling
technology which is important to reversing the recent decline in Soviet oil
production. The success of the project should also develop confidence within
the world energy community in the viability of oil drilling projects in the
USSR.
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