Page 46 - GEORptNov19

It is expected that the bonds will be listed on the regulated Euronext Dublin market on or about June 19 with a rating of Ba2 by Moody's and BB- by Fitch. An application may be made to list the bonds on Georgia’s stock exchange as well. If successful, the issue would become Georgia’s first dual-listed international offering of senior unsecured notes.
“The $300mn will be used for funding Georgian small and medium sized businesses and will contribute to the growth of the Georgian economy,” Vakhtang Butskhrikidze, general director of TBC Bank said, as​ ​quoted​ ​by Interpressnews.
9.0​ Industry & Sectors 9.1 ​Sector news
9.1.1 ​Oil & gas sector news
No Azerbaijani gas will flow to the European Union market until at least October 2020. ​And a gas supply company in Azerbaijan may end up facing a big bill because of the delays. That much became clear on November 1 after the head of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) consortium gave an interview to Reuters.
Gas supplies from Azerbaijan’s giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea are to reach Europe via the $40bn Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), supported by the European Union as a major step in diversifying energy supplies away from over-dependence on existing sources such as Russia and Norway. The SGC links the 692-km South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) running from Azerbaijan to Georgia,​ ​TANAP, which runs 1,850 km from the Georgian border through Turkey to the Greek border​ ​and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), an 878 km pipeline which traverses Greece and Albania and an Adriatic seabed route to southern Italy.
“It is not TANAP, but the other parties that have not yet reached project completion,” TANAP chief Saltuk Duzyol said in his interview, cautioning: “Commercially, according to our gas transportation agreements, we are entitled to issue invoices starting from July 1 next year.”
Under the Shah Deniz II gas sales deal, Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company (AGSC)—formed by Azerbaijan’s national energy company Socar and its Shah Deniz project partners and which manages gas sales from the Shah Deniz field—has to pay fines to gas buyers if they do not get supplies by July 1, 2020.
Shah Deniz I has been pumping gas since 2006, selling it to Georgia and Turkey. Shah Deniz II is expected to attain 16bn cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year by 2021. Some 10 bcm of that is earmarked for Europe and 6 bcm for Turkey.
“Commercial deliveries of Azeri gas to Europe can begin no earlier than October 2020, since the construction work on the TAP pipeline can be completed by this date,” Duzyol added.
The TAP project, which includes Britain’s BP, Italy’s Snam and Spain’s Enagas, has faced construction delays caused by environmental hitches. Completion was targeted for early 2020, but Duzyol was cited as saying that the TAP consortium faced “some technical difficulties as well as other
46​ GEORGIA Country Report​ November 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com