NCB Merchant Bank (T&T) Ltd, a subsidiary of the Jamaica-based NCB Capital Markets Group, has signed an agreement with Guyana Shorebase Inc (GYSBI) for the disbursement of a syndicated term loan of US$10 million.
Guyana Shore Base Inc is a Guyanese majority-owned company that provides a multi-use facility offering support and logistical services to satisfy the highly specialised needs of Guyana’s oil and gas industry.
Fourteen international oil companies are currently engaged in petroleum operations onshore and offshore in Guyana’s territorial waters.
According to a release, this loan will allow GYSBI to expand its capacity in the delivery of secure open and covered storage, berthing for supply vessels, operational personnel, and loading/unloading logistics support.
GYSBI offers services ranging from waste management, chemical storage, warehousing, construction, supply chain management, expatriate management, and customs and logistics services.
The company currently has four berths, 30 acres of developed land at its main port and owns and manages 140 acres of industrial estate.
Guyana’s estimated reserves at August of this year stands at more than 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) and 13.2 trillion cubic feet of associated gas, the release said.
It added with an estimate of 750,000 barrels of oil per day in the next two years and potential revenues of US$50 to US$200 billion by 2050, the industry is ramping up for the long haul.
The release said NCB Merchant Bank T&T has been providing financing in Guyana since 2015.
It was part of a wider NCB syndicate out of Jamaica that extended a US$20M loan to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO), and in 2020 NCB arranged financing for Nabi/KCL Oilfield Construction Services JV to aid in their construction of a corporate campus in Ogle, Guyana for a prominent energy company.
“We were able to provide financing that is flexible, forward thinking, and facilitative of GYSBI’s business model. By taking the time to understand Guyana Shore Base, we were able to create a custom-tailored financial solution,” Marli Creese, head of corporate and investment banking at NCB Merchant Bank (T&T) Ltd said.
GYSBI general manager Robert Albiez also noted the bridging loan agreement was a precursor to a more significant multimillion-dollar deal involving NCB Merchant Bank and three other Guyana banks to provide capital for projects that will further build and enhance GYSBI’s capacity to support Exxon Mobil’s offshore drilling campaign.
The NCB Financial Group has assets of US$12 billion, a capital base of US$ 1 billion and is publicly traded on the Jamaica and T&T stock exchanges.