Whiting Petroleum Corp. is increasing its revolver after acquiring interests in 17 fields for $345 million. Whiting is restructuring its loan facility and increasing the borrowing base from $195 million to $480 million, said James Casperson, v.p. of finance and cfo of the energy company. The company opted for a revolver because of the ability to prepay the debt. "We had already issued some high-yield securities earlier in the year and we feel that with the current cash flow of the company that we can get this revolver paid down in a reasonable period of time for our balance sheet to get the levels of debt and equity that we like," Casperson said. With current cash flow estimates, Whiting estimates it can get to a 40% debt-to-total capitalization within 24 months.
J.P. Morgan leads the line and Bank of America and Wachovia Securities are co-leads. "We asked for the first time B of A to join the banking relationship and are very happy with that relationship," Casperson noted. "That gives us two of the three largest energy lenders in the U.S. in our banking facility." The company anticipates a syndicate of 16 banks, including three new lenders to the company. Casperson declined to name the new banks. Bank One led the previous revolver prior to its merger with J.P. Morgan. Murphy Markham, managing director, and Scott Fowler, v.p., are the bankers at J.P. Morgan who worked on the credit, Casperson said.