Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat) hopes to raise a total $1 billion in project finance loans over the next 12 months, said a report.

The firm 'is approaching banks about raising debt for its third phase of financing to meet repayment commitments due between June and early 2010 for the acquisition of 25 gas shipment vessels under construction in South Korea,' the Middle East Economic  Digest (Meed) said quoting Nakilat's managing director Muhammad Ghannam.

'We are going to go to the market very shortly to explore what is available and how much we could raise,' he said.

Nakilat wants to structure the bank loans as project finance-style deals, with the ships being used as income-generating assets to repay the financing, Meed said.

The company may split the $1 billion debt between an Islamic tranche of between $300 million and $500 million and a conventional tranche of between $500 million and $700 million, Meed added without citing a source.

The tenor of the debt will be between eight and 10 years, it added.   'We are still exploring pricing,' Ghannam said, adding that his firm's investment grade rating by three agencies should enable it to raise the money at market cost.-Reuters