LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) - Russian-backed Indian refinerNayara Energy has completed a long-term pre-payment deal with BPand global commodities trader Trafigura for $750 million,Nayara's chief executive said on Wednesday.
The deal, backed by a consortium of international banks,will see the two firms repaid with future gasoline and gasoilover the next four years.
Pre-payments are one the financing mechanisms frequentlyused in the oil industry.
The total is half the amount originally targeted but is keyfor asserting the firm's independence after being previouslyowned by the debt-laden Essar Group which was wholly dependenton local lenders.
"Nayara Energy is continually looking for innovativeopportunities to develop a robust financing framework tostrengthen its balance sheet," CEO B. Anand said in a statement.
"This is truly a benchmark transaction and yet anothermilestone in our journey towards achieving financialexcellence."
Trafigura and BP closed two similar deals over shorterperiods worth $1.45 billion last year.
Nayara, formerly Essar Oil, was taken over by a consortiumled by Russian oil major Rosneft in 2017. Rosneft owns 49.13percent of Nayara, while Russian fund UCP and Geneva-basedTrafigura together own a similar share.
The consortium acquired a 400,000 barrel-per-day refinery inVadinar as well as a port, power plant and 3,500 fuel stationsfor nearly $13 billion.
Earlier this year, the refiner said it would invest $850million to build a new refinery and petrochemical plant.
(Reporting by Julia Payne; editing by Jason Neely)
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