VEB.RF to Provide up to EUR500mn in Financing for Amur Gas Processing Plant Construction
VEB.RF, together with a syndicate of Russian, European and Chinese lenders, has signed agreements to finance the construction of Amur Gas Processing Plant. The project is carried out by Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk (part of Gazprom) in the Svobodny advanced development zone, Amur Region.
Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk is to raise 11.4 billion euros from Russian, European and Chinese banks, with VEB.RF’s commitment of up to 500 million euros.
“VEB.RF’s participation in financing the construction of Amur Gas Processing Plant had an important role in preparing the offers of potential lenders: foreign and Russian financial institutions,” Gazprom’s Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee Famil Sadygov emphasised.
“VEB.RF is involved in the country’s biggest gas-processing and gas-to-chemicals projects. The construction of Amur Gas Processing Plant will enable Russia to increase its export potential, including in the potentially lucrative Asian markets. Amur Gas Processing Plant will become a world leader in helium production,” VEB.RF’s First Deputy Chairman – Member of the Management Board Nikolay Tsekhomsky said.
Amur Gas Processing Plant will be one of the world’s largest gas-processing facilities. It will play a significant role in supplying natural gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline.
Amur Gas Processing Plant will be constructed near the town of Svobodny, Amur Region. Its design capacity is 42 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year. The facility will include the world’s largest helium production. The project consists of six process trains. Two of them are scheduled to begin operation in 2021. The others will be put into operation in phases by the end of 2024. Therefore, it is intended that the facility will work at full capacity in 2025. Apart from natural gas and helium, Amur Gas Processing Plant will also produce ethane, propane, butane and pentane-hexane fraction. Investor and project originator: Gazprom Pererabotka Blagoveshchensk (part of Gazprom). Project manager and general contractor: NIPIGAS (part of SIBUR).
VEB.RF and Gazprombank to Provide Financing for Research Reactor Construction
VEB.RF, Gazprombank and the International Research Center based on the MBIR reactor (IRC MBIR) (part of ROSATOM) have agreed on the terms and conditions of financing for the project to construct a multipurpose research reactor (MBIR).
The project totalling almost 80 billion roubles is aimed at building a unique research facility with a fourth-generation fast-neutron reactor at Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk Region. The MBIR reactor is designed to help Russia to preserve and develop its nuclear research capability. The research reactor will be used to create and test new materials and nuclear technologies. IRC MBIR will be contracted by Russian and international companies to carry out irradiation experiments and post-irradiation tests.
VEB.RF and Gazprombank will provide a total of over 20 billion roubles in project financing under the Project Financing Factory programme. In addition to debt financing, the MBIR project is to use equity financing. The transaction has already received approval from the Supervisory Board of VEB.RF.
“Nuclear power is an excellent example of high-technology industries where the Russian Federation can definitely be viewed as a world leader. The Project Financing Factory mechanism using long-term syndicated lending is ideally suited for such large-scale and capital-intensive initiatives,” VEB.RF’s Deputy Chairman Daniil Algulyan said.
“We will help to build a facility that is of not only scientific but also strategic importance for the country. I am confident that by financing the large-scale high-technology project, we help Russian science as a whole to increase its potential. Additionally, this transaction will allow us to raise to a new level our significant cooperation with VEB.RF and ROSATOM,” Gazprombank’s Executive Vice President Alexander Ushkov said.
“Signing the financing agreement for the project to construct the research facility with a multipurpose fast-neutron reactor is consistent with ROSATOM’s strategy to create the International Research Center based on the MBIR reactor. An important aspect is that ROSATOM’s largest scientific project is attractive to investors such as these leading Russian banks,” IRC MBIR’s CEO Sergey Pastukhov commented.
Launched under the federal targeted programme New Generation of Nuclear Power Technologies for 2010–2015 with Long-Term Plans Until 2020, the MBIR project is designed to renew ROSATOM’s research reactors and aimed at helping Russia to continue to be a leader in nuclear research.