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Oil Terminal in Kulevy to be Launched in Fourth Quarter

Oil&Gas Materials 14 August 2007 13:51 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend S.Aliyev / The oil terminal in the Kulevy on the Black Sea shore of Georgia is planned to be put into operation in the fourth quarter of 2007, a Government source stated.

Currently the underground railway line is being constructed in the terminal. The terminal in Kulevy has been acquired by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) which possesses 51% participation share in the project. Shipping cargo is intended to begin with SOCAR products. Currently talks are also held with the shippers from Kazakhstan to attract cargo for transportation. More than 1mln tons of cargo are intended to be shipped this year.

This year SOCAR received a large syndicated credit for the construction of the terminal. The gross amount of the credit totaled $301 mln. A credit amounting to $265 mln was received at the beginning of the year and recently an additional $40 mln was obtained. The credit syndicate from 15 foreign banks was headed by Societe Generale. The credits are expected to be returned by 2009. The credit was obtained by AzACG Ltd which represents Azerbaijan in the development project of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshly fields. AzACG Ltd obtained the credit with an annual interest rate of 0.85% and granted it as credit with a higher rate to Carolina Company which has been established for the construction of the oil terminal in Kulevy. SOCAR is the key shareholder of Carolina Company which possesses 51% participation share.

The construction work on the terminal will be completed in the summer. Presently the capacity of the terminal equals 10 mln tons. The capacity of the reserve park of the terminal is 320,000 cu.m. The capacity of the terminal is planned to be increased up to 15-20 mln tons and reserve part up to 380,000 cu.m.

The experts say that the tariffs for the cargo transportation via this terminal will not be higher than the prices in Batumi.

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