IGB to ink loan agreement with EIB by late 2018 – executive officer
By Narmina Mammadova
An agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for preferential loan to finance the construction of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) is expected to be signed in December 2018, Teodora Georgieva, Executive Officer of ICGB AD (project company) on the Bulgarian side, told Trend.
The agreement concerns securing preferential loan financing in connection with using the state guarantee of Bulgaria for 110 million euros.
Georgieva noted that the actual utilization 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.
In general, Georgieva noted that in terms of ensuring the required financing for the project the company is at very advanced stage.
Key agreements have been signed on the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) project, envisioning transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe on June 29 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
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.
Azerbaijan is implementing a large-scale gas project, the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), which provides for the supply of gas from the giant Shah Deniz field to Europe.
The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. Gas from this field will go via the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline to the Turkish border and further to Europe through the Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic (TAP) pipelines.
TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, has already attracted 1.5 billion euros from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which approved the loan in early February 2018. The pipeline will connect to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italy’s south.
Connecting with the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network.
Once built, TAP will offer a direct and cost-effective transportation route opening up the vital Southern Gas Corridor, a 3,500-kilometer long gas value chain stretching from the Caspian Sea to Europe. Around 82 percent of the TAP project has already been completed.
TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
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