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IGB, EIB to ink loan agreement in next few months

Oil&Gas Materials 10 December 2018 15:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.10

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

A loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) on financing the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) is expected to be signed in the coming months, EIB told Trend.

The agreement concerns securing preferential loan financing in connection with using the state guarantee of Bulgaria for 110 million euros.

“EIB is currently in the process of negotiations of the finance contract concerning this project. For the time being, there is no specific date set for the signature of the respective contract. However, it is possible that it be concluded in the next few months,” said the Bank.

Earlier, Teodora Georgieva, Executive Officer of ICGB AD (project company) on the Bulgarian side, told Trend that an agreement with EIB is expected to be signed in December 2018.

Georgieva noted that the approval of the loan shall take place before the start of the construction phase.

"The due diligence procedure has been completed and a proposal for the provision of the loan passed the EIB internal approval procedure. At the current stage the drafting of the loan agreement has started. The agreement shall be aligned with the Ministry of Finance of Bulgaria, being the party providing the State Guarantee," she said.

IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets.

The initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas.

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