Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.5
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Electrogas Malta consortium closed a refinancing deal in December of 2017 for the LNG to Power facility, the project which also involves Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, Catherine Halpin, Commercial Director at ElectroGas Malta Ltd., told Trend.
“I can confirm that we closed a refinancing deal in December of 2017 for our LNG to Power facility,” she said.
It comprises equity plus a senior debt package of 400-500 million euros ($490.6-$613.3 million) from ten financial institutions. The institutions include KfW-IPEX, Societe Generale, HSBC, Bank of Valletta, Natixis, BNP Paribas, DZ Bank, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, Rivage Investment and Arguin Infrastructure Partners.
ElectroGas Malta Consortium, where SOCAR is represented with a 20-percent share by its marketing arm SOCAR Trading, was established to implement the combined cycle gas fired power plant project in Malta.
Other shareholders are German Siemens Project Ventures GmbH and GEM Holdings Ltd, which is a joint venture of Maltese companies. SOCAR Trading is represented in the project as a supplier of LNG (8-10 batches per year), a floating liquid natural gas storage unit and equipment for its processing. The first LNG batch was supplied to Malta in January 2017.
The plant’s construction costs 175 million euros. It will meet up to 50 percent of Malta’s electricity demand. The plant’s commercial operation began in August 2017.
SOCAR Trading, headquartered in Geneva, was established in late 2007 by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan.
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