Allen & Overy advises on a jumbo USD 1.3bn prepayment facility in favour of Glencore Energy UK Ltd.

Allen & Overy has acted for the lenders on a jumbo USD 1.3bn prepayment facility in favour of Glencore Energy UK Ltd for advance payments for crude oil purchases from the national oil company of the Republic of Chad, Société des Hydrocarbures du Tchad (SHT).

Facility proceeds were applied by SHT, for the purposes of financing SHT's acquisition of Chevron's upstream and midstream oil and gas assets in the Republic of Chad. The acquired assets include a 25 per cent stake in seven fields in the Doba basin (operated by ExxonMobil) and a 21 per cent stake in the 1,070km Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline.

Lenders include Africa Finance Corporation, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Deutsche Bank, ING, First Bank of Nigeria, Natixis and Société Générale.

Adrian Mellor, Partner and head of the banking & finance department at Allen & Overy Paris, commented: 'this deal continues the growing but still recent trend of using jumbo prepayment facilities as a source of financing in the oil and gas sector'.

The deal has been described in the Financial Times as 'transformational' for the Republic of Chad and SHT.

The Allen & Overy team was led from Paris and comprised partner Adrian Mellor, senior associate Tom Longmuir and associates Benjamin Marché and Tristan Jambu-Merlin, with Tax support from partner Vimal Tilakapala in London and Regulatory support from partner Ken Rivlin and senior associate Allie Cheatham in New York.