Tullow Oil secures $2.5bn of debt refinancing

The facilities are split between a commercial bank facility of $2.4bn and IFC facility of $100m.

The transaction, which was formally launched early last month following the resolution of the Ghana/Cote d'Ivoire border dispute, was materially oversubscribed and extends the maturity of the group's existing reserved based lending credit facilities.

Tullow has also decided to reduce the commitments of its revolving corporate credit facility to $600m from $800m ahead of the scheduled amortisation in January 2018. The company now has total headroom including free cash of $0.9bn with no material near-term debt maturities.

Chief financial officer Les Wood said: "The refinancing of our RBL credit facility was a key objective for 2017 and we are very pleased to have completed this process in line with stated guidance and ahead of our year-end target.

"The success of this transaction clearly demonstrates the high quality of the group's assets, our ability to generate free cash flow and the strength of our long-standing banking relationships. Following this refinancing, we have no material near-term debt maturities and will enter 2018 in a strong financial position."