Petroleum Development Oman ( PDO ), the country's top oil and gas exploration and production company, has obtained a USD4bn loan from international banks, part of a rush of foreign borrowing by Oman as low oil prices strain state finances. The five-year pre-export facility is the company's first international loan and was priced at 160 basis points over the London interbank offered rate (Libor), state-owned PDO said on Wednesday. "This competitive new source of funding will enable us to reduce reliance on government funding, so that it can redeploy resources to other areas of the economy," said Raoul Restucci, PDO's managing director. The loan will help to finance new oil and gas facilities in Oman, PDO said, adding that it planned to invest more than USD20 bn in the next five years. Its projects include the Rabab Harweel facility, which is to develop 240 mn barrels of oil and 100 mn barrels of condensate while exporting 1 trillion cubic feet of non-associated gas when production starts in 2019. (Reuters)