How much project money can one country pull in? For the small Gulf state of Qatar, the sky is the limit, judging by commercial banks’ response to the upstream component of the Qatar Liquefied Gas Company II (QatarGas II) scheme, described as the world’s largest project financing scheme. More than 40 banks responded to the sponsors’ request for mandated lead arrangers (MLAs) willing to underwrite $3.6bn in 15-year clean project risk.
A 36-strong MLA group emerged; the previous record was 24 banks for the Q-Chem petrochemicals scheme, another Qatari project.
