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SOCAR receives first tranche of loan from Azerbaijani bank (exclusive)

Oil&Gas Materials 27 October 2015 14:23 (UTC +04:00)
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) has received the first tranche of the loan valued at 189 million manats from the International Bank of Azerbaijan.
SOCAR receives first tranche of loan from Azerbaijani bank (exclusive)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.27

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) has received the first tranche of the loan valued at 189 million manats from the International Bank of Azerbaijan, SOCAR vice president for economic affairs Suleyman Gasimov exclusively told Trend Oct.27.

The official exchange rate on Oct.27 is 1.0489 AZN/USD.

Of this volume, 120 million manats will be spent on drilling work, while another 69 million manats will be used for the work on modernization of Baku Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev, according to Gasimov.

Earlier, Gasimov said that the total volume of the loan will be 1.86 billion manats, of which 1.26 billion manats will be spent on modernization of Baku Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev, while 600 million manats will be used for the drilling work at Bulla Deniz field and in the shallow part of Guneshli field.

SOCAR's vice president noted that the Finance Ministry acts as the state guarantor for the loan that will be issued for a long term.

One part of the loan for modernization of the plant will be issued for around 13 years, with three-year grace period, he said, adding that it will be repaid within 10 years in equal parts from the state budget and SOCAR's authorized capital.

He also noted that the loan for conducting drillings is meant for five to six years, and the proceeds from the sale of extracted hydrocarbons will be a source for this loan's repayment.

The process of modernization of the Baku oil refinery named after Heydar Aliyev will be completed by late 2018.

After the completion of the reconstruction, the processing capacity of the refinery will increase from six million to 7.5 million tons of oil per year.

SOCAR announced about liquidation of Azneftyag oil refinery on Jan. 1, 2015 and its merger with Baku oil refinery named after Heydar Aliyev.

This decision was made as part of work to improve and optimize SOCAR's structure.

Edited by SI

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov

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