BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 15
By Anastasia Savchenko - Trend:
Cooperation of Russia’s Gazprombank with Azerbaijani companies, in particular with Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, is of strategic nature, a source in the bank told Trend Jan. 15.
Construction of a gas processing and gas-chemical complex in Azerbaijan’s Sangachal district (SOCAR GPC project), in the implementation of which Gazprombank participates, is an important project for SOCAR, the source noted.
“The capacity of the gas processing plant under construction will be 10 billion cubic meters, and the polymer plant – 600,000 tons of polyethylene and 130,000 tons of propylene,” the bank said.
The construction project cost is tentatively estimated at $4 billion, according to the source.
The source also said that Gazprombank, along with ING Bank (Netherlands) and the China Development Bank, has been providing financial advice to the project since 2016, and since 2019 has been participating in it as a potential financing organizer and lender.
The source noted that the loan is supposed to be provided on the basis of project financing.
“Gazprombank is negotiating with major credit organizations, as well as potential customers of banking support services, and expects to launch several test projects in the third or fourth quarter of 2020,” the source added. “Successful implementation of these projects will bring fundamentally new technology product to Azerbaijan’s banking market.”
Gazprombank is one of Russia’s leading credit organizations, providing banking support services for contracts since 2014.
Banking support of contracts is a set of services provided to ensure control over the targeted spending of funds allocated by a state or corporate customer for the implementation of a project.
The use of banking support allows increasing efficiency of investments, reducing the risks of inappropriate spending of funds, channeling funds into the shadow turnover, as well as optimizing the pricing structure for a project.