Brazil / Insurance for Lula Central Oil Field FPSO Charter Project

Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (“NEXI”) has decided to provide insurance for loans which will support a long-term FPSO (*) charter to Tupi B.V., a consortium composed of several companies including Petróleo Brasileiro S.A.(Petrobras), a Brazilian national oil company. The FPSO will be owned by Beta Lula Central S.a r.l (“Beta”), incorporated in Luxemburg by Mitsubishi Corporation (“Mitsubishi”) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (“NYK”) jointly with Dutch-based SBM Offshore (“SBM”) and a Brazilian company QGOG.

The FPSO will be constructed by Single Buoy Mooring Inc., a construction subsidiary of SBM, to develop the Lula Central Oil Field in the pre-salt layer about 5,000m beneath the seabed located about 250km off the south coast of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Beta will provide the 20-year FPSO charter service for Tupi B.V. with the capacity to process up to 150 thousand bbl of crude oil and 6 mcm of gas per day, and store about 1,600 thousand bbl of crude oil.

Beta is planning to raise funds of about USD 1,550 million through project financing, of which about USD 400 million will be from Mizuho Bank (Agent Bank), Citibank Japan, ING Bank Tokyo Branch, The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Development Bank of Japan, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, Societe Generale Tokyo Branch and Credit Agricole Tokyo Branch. NEXI’s insurance will be provided to these Japanese commercial banks. Part of the project financing will also be supported by Atradius, the Dutch ECA.

Mitsubishi and NYK are deeply involved in this FPSO charter project, including a 39 percent investment in Beta and operational support by providing their staff. NEXI’s insurance support for the loan to Beta will contribute greatly to the expansion of offshore resource development infrastructure business of these Japanese companies.

NEXI will continue to provide active support to promote Japanese participation in the international offshore resource development projects.

^* FPSO: Floating Production, Storage and Offloading system is a floating vessel for the processing of crude oil produced at the subsea oil well, and for the storage and offloading of oil.