Abu Dhabi National Oil Gets $3 Billion Loan From Japan Bank

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. agreed to take a $3 billion loan from Japan Bank for International Cooperation as the Asian country provides financing to secure crude supplies, government officials from both nations said.

JBIC, as the state-linked lender is known, is extending credit to Abu Dhabi’s government-owned oil company, known as Adnoc, for a five-year period, Japanese Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said at a press conference in the emirate today. He said the interest rate on the loan is confidential.

The loan is the third between Adnoc and JBIC, following similar agreements for the same amount of money in 2007 and 2010. Japanese companies have stakes in oil- and natural-gas- producing ventures in Abu Dhabi and are consumers of the fuels.

Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, holds most of the country’s oil. The emirate is negotiating new joint venture agreements for its main oil production concession to replace the deals that expire next year.

Adnoc and JBIC signed the loan agreement today in Abu Dhabi, Nasser Ahmed Al Sowaidi, chairman of the emirate’s Economic Development Department, said today.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mahmoud Kassem in Abu Dhabi at mkassem1@bloomberg.net; Anthony DiPaola in Dubai at adipaola@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net