OREANDA-NEWS. GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE (NYSE: GE), has closed a USD 200 million senior secured credit facility subject to a USD 135 million initial borrowing base for SND Consolidated Energy LLC to refinance debt and fund oil and gas field development in East Texas and Louisiana.

GE Energy Financial Services -- through GE Capital Corp. and GE Capital Markets, Inc. -- served as administrative agent, sole lead arranger and sole book runner, and is providing USD 75 million of the initial borrowing base to SND, a privately held independent oil and gas exploration and production company based in Dallas, Texas. Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. is providing the remaining USD 60 million of the initial borrowing base.

SND – one of the largest operators in the East Texas Oil Field -- owns and operates oil and gas production in Gregg, Rusk, Nacogdoches, Cherokee, and Angelina counties in Texas and in De Soto and Caddo parishes in Louisiana.

“This facility provides SND with near-term liquidity to initiate a well workover program expected to grow diversified and long-lived reserves,” said John Schaeffer, Managing Director and head of the oil and gas unit at GE Energy Financial Services. “These transactions provide value to our customers by filling a gap between conforming bank loans and the high-yield market.”

“This transaction also provides SND with required capital to develop additional reserves from our existing oil and gas assets,” stated L. Ali Sheikh, President and CEO of SND. “GE’s team strongly supported SND with initiative and flexibility for a timely closing.”

Since 1991, GE Energy Financial Services’ Oil and Gas team has provided more than USD 5 billion in partnership equity and debt to independent private and public oil and gas operators in the United States and the UK North Sea. Based in Stamford, Connecticut – with an office in Houston, Texas – the Oil and Gas unit is active in all major onshore basins, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the UK North Sea.