Equatorial Guinea eyes $2 billion in financing from Trafigura

PARAMARIBO, August 6, 2024 – Equatorial Guinea is in talks with commodities giant Trafigura for USD 2 billion in oil financing, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The government released a statement saying that Trafigura had proposed the loan during talks last week.

The proposed financing – which the report identified as part of a recent trend of African governments seeking funding from traders – would go towards supporting Equatorial Guinea’s oil and gas developments.

Discussing the trend, the report cited Gunvor Group’s financing of Gabon’s USD 800-million deal to buy the Carlyle Group’s Assala Energy, completed in June, and Uganda’s 2023 deal to make Vitol its sole supplier of oil products.

Equatorial Guinea has been developing its oil and gas sector since large discoveries were made in 1996. The majority of the country’s production and exports come from the offshore Zafiro field, which was operated by ExxonMobil until it was taken over by NOC GEPetrol earlier this year.

GEPetrol envisions a new era of oil and gas growth based on its recent restructuring and plans for a three-phase redevelopment of Zafiro, which has estimated reserves of 1.19 billion barrels and was producing 45,000 bopd before ExxonMobil shut down its platform in 2022.

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