The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has hired HSBC to arrange a loan of around $1 billion, banking sources told Reuters.

Two of the sources said that the loan is a result of requests made by Petroleum Export Limited (PEL), a special purpose vehicle through which EGPC has previously taken several loans.

According to the sources, the loan will be a structured finance deal like previous PEL transactions, and the money will partly be used to pre-pay EGPC cargo deliveries.

There have been no official statements made by EGPC or HSBC.