Energy projects rise or fall on the financing decisions behind them, not just the engineering. The Arab British Fellowship Training Academy designed this Energy Project Finance Training Course to give managers the practical toolkit they need to secure, structure and steer funding for energy initiatives, whether renewable or conventional, from the first feasibility study to the final repayment schedule.

Participants build financial models tailored to energy assets, learn to read the accounting treatment of exploration and development costs under IFRS, and practise the appraisal techniques—net present value, internal rate of return, payback and discounted payback—that decide whether a project gets funded in the first place.

A large part of the course is devoted to where the money actually comes from: equity investors, development banks, private lenders, and the contractual scaffolding around them, including power purchase agreements (PPAs), EPC contracts and O&M agreements. Case studies on public-private partnerships and cross-border financing mechanisms give the discussion a genuinely international dimension.

Throughout, the course keeps circling back to risk: how to spot it early, price it correctly, and structure deals so that it sits with whoever is best placed to carry it. By the close of the programme, managers leave with a working command of financial planning, stakeholder negotiation and risk control as they apply specifically to energy finance.

Course Objectives

• Evaluate different project-financing methods and recommend the right one for a given energy asset.
• Manage project-finance contracts and the cost of finance, including choosing between debt, equity, grants and guarantees.
• Apply investment-appraisal techniques (NPV, IRR, payback) and capital-budgeting tools to energy proposals.
• Read and analyse an organisation's financial statements and ratios, and manage cash and working capital effectively.
• Understand the accounting standards, IFRS/GAAP reporting requirements and tax implications specific to energy projects.
• Manage project risk, and understand derivatives and options in the energy sector well enough to use them to control exposure.

Who Should Attend?

• Finance and project managers, and board members or senior management involved in financial decisions.
• Accounting department managers, corporate accountants, financial controllers and treasury officers.
• Management accountants, financial and investment analysts, and joint-venture accountants and auditors.
• External, financial and internal auditors, and government regulators and auditors.
• Anyone working under budget constraints whose role touches financial decision-making.

Module 1: Why Financing Decisions Make or Break Energy Projects

• The business case for structured energy project finance
• Financial decision-making within the energy business environment: objectives, stakeholders and corporate governance
• A review of the tools of finance and the financing models available to energy projects
• The nature of energy projects, and financing renewable versus conventional energy

Module 2: Accounting and Reporting for Energy Assets

• Accounting systems, principles and international accounting standards (IFRS) within the energy sector
• Pre-exploration activities, and choosing between the successful-efforts and full-cost methods
• Acquisition, exploration, development and production costs, and impairment
• Revenue recognition in energy projects

Module 3: Financial Management, Statements and Analysis

• Objectives and functions of financial management, and short-term financial management and cash management
• Understanding financial statements: the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement
• Ratio analysis, measures of operating and financial performance, and sensitivity and risk analysis
• External and internal financial audit, management and responsibility reporting, and tax implications

Module 4: Sourcing and Structuring Finance

• Long-term financial resources: debt, equity, grants and guarantees
• Cash management and banking facilities, and current practices in mergers and acquisitions
• Project financing, shared savings and performance contracting
• Screening energy-efficiency projects using financial and economic rates of return, and dividends compared with share repurchases

Module 5: Budgeting, Costing and Capital Structure

• Investment proposals and estimating cash flows for capital budgeting, including biases and options in capital budgeting
• Risk and cost-sharing arrangements: joint ventures, transfers of interest, production-sharing and long-term gas contracts
• Cost of capital, cost of debt and equity, and the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)
• Optimal capital structure, and capital structure in relation to financial distress and its costs

Module 6: Valuation, Investment Appraisal and Financial Instruments

• Valuation methods, payback, Net Present Value (NPV), Return on Investment (ROI), Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and discounted payback
• Investment need, appraisal criteria and protecting energy investment
• Derivative markets: forward, futures, swap and option contracts, and using options to modify risk