OMAN - The Financing.

With such credit worthy clients and partners and with Citigroup acting at its financial adviser, thanks to a well-structured system, QLNG in late March 2005 got a $688m loan at very competitive rates from 13 international banks through seven mandated lead arrangers (MLAs): Banca Intesa, Calyon, Gulf Int'l Bank, ING Bank, Mizuho Financial Group, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank. Some of these banks and others financed the tankers' orders made by OSC and its various partners at equally attractive rates. OLNG used its credit worthiness in the same way as it refinanced debt for its two trains.

At the March 30, 2005 signing ceremony for the loan, Roger Warby, the Paris-based director of project finance for Calyon, told reporters it was a "golden opportunity for us to sign a deal for such a prestigious financing project in the Middle East". Oman's National Economy Minister Ahmad bin Abdul-Nabi al-Macki, who signed the agreement along with Oil and Gas Minister Dr. Muhammad al-Rumhi, called it another major step forward in integrating Oman with the world economy.