"A 10-year loan agreement was signed by banks and a special purpose LNG transport company sponsored by MOL and Enron International," said ANZ Investment in a press release.

Underwriting for the loan, arranged by ANZ Investment Bank, also saw ABB Structured Finance (Zurich), Arab Banking Corporation (Bahrain), Bank of Nova Scotia (Singapore), Societe Generale (Paris) and Christiana Bank of Kreditkasse (London) take part. Syndication of this loan is expected to coincide with general syndication of the Dabhol Power Company's (DPC) $600 million loan.

ANZ Investment Bank's global head of debt orgination, Chris Vermont, in a statement said, "The innovative finacing structure and long-tenor clearly highlights India as a preffered destination for international capital. The nature of the security package sets down a market for future limited recourse LNG financings such as this. We would expect the economic and environmental benifits of using LNG for power generation to lead to the demand for similar financing in the future".

The LNG vessel's ownership is as follows: MOL (75 per cent) and Enron (25 per cent). The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) is expected to join the consortium in the first quarter of this year and after this, the ownership pattern will change to MOL (60 per cent), Enron (20 per cent) and SCI (20 per cent).

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd of Japan will build the LNG carrier. Construction on the carrier is expected to begin shortly with delivery by 2001.

Enron and MOL had in December 1998 signed a shareholders agreement to form a venture company to own and operate a 135,000 cu.m LNG carrier. MOL and Enron and SCI later signed a memorandunm of understanding in December, which provided for SCI entry into the venture.