State-owned Qatar Petroleum has involved several international banks to arrange the issuance of US dollar-denominated bonds.

Qatar Petroleum (QP) has hired a group of international banks to arrange a four-tranche US dollar-denominated bond sale. The sale is comprised of five, 10 and 20-year conventional bonds, as well as a 30-year Formosa portion.

Formosa bonds are sold in Taiwan by foreign borrowers and denominated in currencies other than the Taiwanese dollar.

The Qatar-owned liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier has hired Citi and JPMorgan, which will join BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, MUFG, QNB Capital and Credit Suisse in arranging investor calls.

QP hired banks for the planned debt sale which could potentially raise up to $10 billion, and the sale comes at a time when Gulf energy firms have been pushed to raise money, especially after facing the financial burdens of the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of oil and gas prices.

More banks are expected to be involved at a later stage. In April, Reuters reported that QP was planning its debut public bond issue in what may be one of the region’s biggest debt sales in 2021.

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QP has sold bonds through private placements in the past, including in dollars and in Japanese yen. This would be QP’s first dollar bonds.

Last year, Doha issued a $10 billion bond in a move that attracted nearly $45 billion worth of orders, Bloomberg reported.

QP has ramped up efforts to solidify its position as a leading LNG supplier as the Gulf state gears up to return as the largest LNG producer by 2030.

In March, the state owned corporation signed a $1.9 billion LNG deal with Samsung C&T Corporation as part of Qatar’s $28.7 billion North Field Expansion project, the world’s largest LNG project.

The project is set to raise Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 million metric tons per year to 110 million metric tons per year by 2025.

QP also announced it would become the sole owner of QatarGas from next year.