Samir Sharifov, Azerbaijan’s minister of finance, announced that Azerbaijan is negotiating a 5 billion dollar loan with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and other international credit organizations in order to partially finance its portion of the “Southern Gas Corridor”, reported
APA.
Azerbaijan’s total investiture in the project is projected to reach $13 billion dollars.
The Southern Gas Corridor project, an initiative of the European Commission, would connect the gas reserves of Azerbaijan and potentially several Central Asian states with the European gas market. It is expected that, if completed, the pipeline could account for in between 10 – 20% of the European demand for gas, providing for the transport of 10 billion cubic meters of gas.
It is expected that the total cost of the project will reach $40 – 45 billion dollars.
The minister stated that: “Azerbaijan is capable of financing its portion without the support of international finance organizations. Nonetheless, Azerbaijan is leading credit negotiations with the World Bank, the EBRD and the Asian Development Bank.”
reports APA.
The minister
further
commented that, Azerbaijan: “A country with minimum external debt and reserves of up to 34 billion dollars […] does not need such help. We’re not talking about financial aide, but about cost – effective financing.”
As reported by
Bloomberg
, Azerbaijan officials turned to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in January of 2016 to discuss potential financial aide in the context of plummeting world oil prices.
