Total confirmed it will raise $1.2billion in new debt financing.
The oil major said it would leverage the issue of non-dilutive cash-settled convertible bonds with the purchase of cash-settled call options to create a synthetic bond financing equivalent.
The cash will be used for “general corporate purposes”, according to the firm.
The bonds will have a seven year maturity. Final terms of the scheme are expected to be announced later today.
Last month, Total’s outgoing UK boss, Philippe Guys, said $50 would last a decade.
At the time he said: “There have been a lot of downturns and the first one that I remember was back in 1985, which was five years after I started my career. At the time I saw a lot of redundancies and people leaving their positions. So there’s two things we need to realise.
“First, this downturn is not the one that we saw in 2008 or any of the small fluctuations, which had a sudden price decrease and then an increase a few months later.
“Second, this one is more like the ‘85 crisis , which is effectively a strong decrease and a long-term low price.
“If you look at the commodities I think it’s a cycle of not two or three years but a cycle of 10 to 15 years.”