Monday, May 21, 2012 -
An Uzbek-South Korean joint venture signed a debt financing deal on Saturday to raise $2.54 billion in loans for construction of a gas and chemicals complex unit by 2016.
The Ustyurt gas and chemical complex will be located in the Surgil field in the northern Uzbek region of Ustyurt, a nd is being jointly developed by state oil and gas firm Uzbekneftegaz as well as eight Korean firms, under the umbrella of the Uz-Kor Gas Chemical joint venture.
The project, which will cost an estimated $4 billion to complete, is the largest of its kind in the country to date.
"The construction of the Ustyurt gas chemical complex is the first project of such scale to be implemented in the petrochemical sector on the basis of long-term project financing not only in Uzbekistan, but in the entire territory of the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States]," state gas firm Uzbekneftegaz said in a statement on Saturday.
The consortium of foreign lenders include the Export-Import Bank of Korea – which is putting $1 billion into the initiative – the Asian Development Bank (ADB), China Development Bank, and others.
The loan is repayable over 16 years.
The remaining amount will be found by Uz-Kor Gas Chemical partners Uzbekneftegaz and South Korean firms Korean Gas Corporation (KOGAS), STX Energy, and Honam Petrochemical, the Uzbek state-run oil and gas firm said.