Malaysia's Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project, a venture between Petronas and Saudi Aramco, is seeking commitments from banks for a USD9.7bn, 15-year loan, sources told LPC, a fixed income news service. Banks have already responded to an initial request for proposals and are required to respond by the end of this week with revised proposals, mainly around pricing. The new borrowing is composed of three tranches: an export credit agency facility, an ECA-covered portion and an uncovered commercial piece of around USD3.08bn. ECAs from Japan, South Korea and Europe are expected to be involved. The uncovered commercial tranche will carry different interest margins tied to the completion of the project. The pre-completion period is expected to be two years, during which Petronas and Aramco will provide guarantees, and the all-in pricing is likely to be around 80bps over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). After the project is completed, guarantees fall away and the pricing will increase to around 150bps. Refinery operations are set to begin in 2019, with petrochemical operations to follow 6-12 months later. Petronas and Aramco have equal stakes in the half-built, USD27bn complex located between the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea. Aramco has agreed to supply at least 50% of the crude oil for the project.