Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank signs loan allocation for TANAP

Baku. 6 February. REPORT.AZ/ The Government of Azerbaijan, "Southern Gas Corridor" (SGC) CJSC and Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have signed a contract on a loan allocation to support the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project on January 26 this year.

Report informs, the loan agreement of 600 million USD was signed by the SGC Director General Afgan Isayev and AIIB Director General for Investment Operations Department Teravaninthorn Supee, guarantee agreement on the loan contract by Finance Minister Samir Sharifov on behalf of the Government of Azerbaijan as well by T.Supee on behalf of the AIIB.

A.Isayev said that the progress made as a result of close cooperation with international financial institutions to implement the Southern Gas Corridor project demonstrates trust and support to the works carried out by the Azerbaijani side in the international arena. SGC Director General added that currently, a number of European financial institutions have confirmed their interest in the financing, through intensification of talks: "President Ilham Aliyev always stressed in his speeches that the project is of particular importance not only for Azerbaijan, but also for energy security of Europe and the region and is being implemented just at the expense of the Azerbaijani leadership". The purpose of the Southern Gas Corridor project is full-scale development of "Shahdeniz" gas-condensate field (SD-2), ensuring export of the produced gas to Turkey and Southern Europe via the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline (SCGP) to be expanded as well as via TANAP and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to be built. Taking into account importance of the Southern Gas Corridor for all the participant countries, a number of international financial institutions support this project".

SGC Director General noted efficiency of the Southern Gas Corridor project from economic and commercial point of view and gave information about the works carried out in this direction. According to him, 6.3 bln USD or approximately 50% of about 11.9 bln USD has been allocated so far, which is required by the CJSC for the Southern Gas Corridor project for 2014-2019. He added that last year approximately 2 billion USD of this amount was allocated; "As a part of the project, 87.9% of the works has been carried out on full-scale development of "Shahdeniz" gas-condensate field (on production of first gas), 74.5% on South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPE), 59.3% works on construction of the TANAP, 31,8% on TAP construction.

Notably, "Southern Gas Corridor" CJSC is a closed joint-stock company, which established under order of Azerbaijani President "On some measures regarding the second stage of Shah Deniz gas and condensate field and other projects on the establishment of the Southern Gas Corridor", dated February 25, 2014, No.287 and which 51% of state-owned shares belongs to the Ministry of Economy, 49% to SOCAR.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank with its authorized capital of 100 bln US-dollars finances infrastructure projects in Asia in the fields of energy, transport, urban development, water supply, logistics, telecommunications, agriculture, environment and others. Azerbaijan is a founding member to the bank.