Dana secures £920m in funds after strong year

Dana Petroleum, the Aberdeen-based energy firm, has secured a $1.5 billion (£920 million) finance deal to help boost oil and gas production.

The new facility, which is almost double the one it replaces, is made up of an initial commitment of $1bn together with a further $500m for future investment opportunities.

A syndicate of ten banks, led by BNP Paribas and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has provided the funding facility which was oversubscribed.

Dana’s chief financial officer David Crawford said the deal represented “a major vote of confidence in the company and our future growth plans”.

He added: “I am delighted to close an over-subscribed refinancing process with a high-quality banking group, and to be delivering improved terms.”

Dana, bought off the stock market by the Korea National Oil Corporation in 2010, has made progress on a number of fronts this year including at the Tolmount field in the southern North Sea, in which it has a 50 per cent equity stake with E.ON, and which showed much higher gas volumes than originally anticipated.

It has also had a number of exploration successes in the North Sea through its Pharos and Liberator wells and has recently acquired operating licences in Denmark and Germany.

A $1.6bn Western Isles project to develop two discovered oil fields in the North Sea in partnership with Cieco is also underway with drilling on schedule.

Dana also yesterday appointed David Fitzsimmons as its first independent non-executive director since delisting in 2010.

Fitzsimmons has held senior roles with BP, including as commercial director for its gas, power and renewables business, and was chief executive at Aim-listed Novera Energy until 2009.