The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Thursday, announced that it has arranged a syndicated loan, which includes a facility of up to $170 million for Advanced Energy Systems (ADES), an independent oil services company in Egypt.

This loan also includes a $25 million Islamic finance tranche provided by the Islamic Corporation for the Development (ICD) of the Private Sector. It is the first EBRD joint project with ICD and the Arab International Bank (AIB). Additionally, AIB is to assume the roles of global facility agent, conventional facility agent and security agent.

Financing will also be provided by the Société Arabe Internationale de Banque, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, Credit Libanais S.A.L., AlexBank and the Federated Project and Trade Finance Core Fund.

On the other hand, the loan will also be accompanied by a complete policy dialogue programme, aimed at promoting the adoption of health and safety standards all through the oil and gas sector in Egypt.

Egypt has been struggling with constant shortages of the natural gas which feeds the country’s power plants. The EBRD package of a loan and policy dialogue is to help ADES develop compliance with the highest environmental, health and safety (EHS) standards through a yearly certification to international ISO and OHSAS standards. A corporate governance action plan will also be applied, to set standards for business conduct in the industry.

Since EBRD’s presence in Egypt at the end of 2012, it has so far invested over €1 billion in the country through 27 projects. Its investments include the natural resources sector, the financial sector, agribusiness, manufacturing and services as well as infrastructure projects such as power, municipal water and wastewater and also the contributions to the upgrade of transport services in the country, Oil and Gas Press reports.