OREANDA-NEWS. January 21, 2013. Eurasia Drilling Company Limited (“EDC” or the “Company” - LSE: EDCL), the leading onshore and offshore drilling service provider in the CIS, announced today that it has secured a five-year loan facility of USD 227 million with an interest rate of three month LIBOR plus 3.65% per annum arranged by UniCredit Bank. The grace period for the principal is three years. The term of the facility is through December 27, 2017. The loan agreement also provides an irrevocable renewable bank guarantee of USD 45.4 million.

Mr. W. Richard Anderson, EDC’s Chief Financial Officer, commented,

“I’m pleased that we secured this facility under such favourable terms. The funds will be used to help finance construction of the jack-up rig MERCURY for the Company’s offshore operations in the Caspian Sea and for general corporate purposes. Our conservative balance sheet allows us considerable financial flexibility to continue to pursue growth opportunities. ”

EDC is the largest provider of onshore drilling services in Russia, as measured by the number of meters drilled, providing onshore integrated well construction services and workover services. In addition, the Company provides offshore drilling services in the Caspian Sea. The Company offers its onshore integrated well construction services and workover services to local and international oil and gas companies primarily in Russia and its offshore drilling services to Russian and international oil and gas companies in the Russian, Kazakh and Turkmen sectors of the Caspian Sea. The Company is traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol “EDCL”.