Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

SOCAR GPC, wholly-owned by Azerbaijan's state-owned oil firm SOCAR, intends to close the issue of financing the project on creation of Gas Processing and Petrochemical Complex (GPC) by late 2017, the company reported.

The company will be engaged in the development, design, construction, financing and operating activities of the new gas processing and petrochemical complex, whose capacity is about 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

Within the complex construction of a stream cracker with capacity of approximately 570,000 tonnes per annum of ethylene and 120,000 tonnes per annum of propylene and a swing LLDPE/HDPE polymerisation unit with a capacity of approximately 570,000 tonnes per annum and related infrastructure are planned.

The financing plan consists of a combination of equity, direct funding, export credit agency (ECA) coverd debt and commercial bank debt, primarily from Asian and European companies and institutions.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) selection process is underway. Financial close is targeted for the end of 2017.

ING Bank, China Development Bank and Gazprombank have been mandated as co‐financial advisers. SOCAR intends to finance the project on a non‐recourse basis, and seeks to achieve financing terms and conditions standard for project financings of this type. V inson & Elkins is acting as the international legal adviser of SOCAR GPC with PSG Law Firm as Azerbaijani legal adviser.

SOCAR is a vertically- integrated international oil and gas company, with a dominant position in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas industry and enjoys strong government’s financial and strategic support.

SOCAR’s activities are exploration, preparation, exploitation of onshore and offshore oil and gas fields in the Republic of Azerbaijan, transportation, processing, refining and sale of oil, gas, condensate and other related products.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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