Page 16 - FSUOGM Week 07 2020

FSUOGM
FSUOGM
Gazprombank was currently engaged in providing nancing to a major value-added project at hydrocarbon-rich Azerbaijan’s Sumgait Chemical Industrial Plant, outside Baku, that is delivering plants for the production of polypropylene (PP) and high- density polyethene (hdPE), he reportedly said.
“ e [Socar national energy company subsidiary behind the] project is called SOCAR Polymer. e total cost is about $800 million. e rst plant was commissioned in July
2019. is is a breakthrough for the country’s economy, and an exciting experience for us,” Kamyshev added.
Moscow-headquarted Gazprombank is
now involved as a nancial consultant in the launch of another major project in Azerbaijan, namely the construction of the SOCAR GPC gas processing and petrochemical complex, which aims to maximise value of product in the upstream-midstream-downstream oil and gas chain.
Kamyshev said SOCAR GPC’s budget stood at around $4bn at the current exchange rate for the Azerbaijani manat.
“Part of [Azerbaijan’s investment in developing its petrochemical industry] required a radical modernisation, and it
was important not to miss the moment. e Azerbaijani leadership understood this. We knew that Socar is a very demanding partner with whom it is necessary to be as frank and involved in the process as possible,” Kamyshev was further cited as saying.
He added: “We have signed a cooperation agreement with two major Azerbaijani banks—PASHA Bank and the International Bank of Azerbaijan [IBA]. We agreed on joint nancing of investment projects in Azerbaijan in such priority areas as the petrochemical and oil and gas re ning industries, agriculture, transport and logistics, communications and telecommunications, including with the use of factoring and leasing tools.”
bne IntelliNews, February 12 2020
Azerbaijan’s Socar ‘moving toward more than twofold increase in ethylene production’
Annual ethylene production capacity at the ethylene-polyethylene plant of Azerbaijani national oil company Socar’s Azerikimya PU subsidiary will increase 2.3 times upon the completion of its modernisation this year, the plant’s deputy chief engineer for modernisation Gadir Aliyev told reporters during a press tour, Trend reported.
e capacity stood at between 100,000 and
120,000 tonnes in 2017, he added.
In propylene, Azerikimya’s plant would
this year produce 187,000 tonnes compared to the annual output of 80,000 to 100,000 tonnes three years ago, Aliyev also stated.
e main contractor for the reconstruction and modernisation project of the ethylene plant is the Italian branch of Technip.
Ethylene is a key building block in the production of a range of petrochemicals including polyethylene.
bne IntelliNews, February 18 2020
Uzbekistan not to review
tax relief for foreign oil and
gas companies under PSAs
despite new tax code
e deputy chairman of Uzbekistan’s State Tax Committee, Fazliddin Umarov, said Uzbekistan will not review tax relief for foreign oil and gas companies provided under production sharing agreements (PSAs) amid a new tax code coming into force this year, the Tashkent Times reported on February 18.
e new tax code is expected to remove
tax relief for multiple companies as the government sees them hampering the “normal competitive environment”. At the same time the State Tax Committee introduced “a new principle” for providing tax relief in the new version of the tax code.
“ e relief [instances], which were granted before January 1, 2020, will be valid until
their expiration. From January 1, 2020 in Uzbekistan, privileges are provided exclusively as per the tax code,” said Umarov.
In particular, according to Article 75 of the new tax code, tax relief for certain types of taxes, excluding VAT, excise tax and subsoil use tax, can be granted by decisions of the head of state—these can only be given in the form of
a reduction in an established tax rate, but not more than by 50% and for a period of no longer than three years.
bne IntelliNews, February 19 2020
Kazakhstan to continue
talks with Russia on Power
of Siberia 2 gas pipeline
Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Nurlan Nogayev has said that Nur-Sultan is set to continue talks with Moscow on joining the Russian-Chinese Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline as the Central Asian nation aims to
use this pipeline to provide gas to Eastern Kazakhstan and Pavlodar regions.
Kazakhstan originally announced in November its intention to join the pipeline project. Russia launched its rst gas pipeline
to China, Power of Siberia, on December 2—the pipeline is set to transport 38bn cubic metres (cm) of gas a year once it reaches its full capacity. Chinese company PetroChina has said the prices of gas delivered via Power of Siberia will be competitive with gas deliveries from Central Asia, much of which comes from Turkmenistan. Russia is also planning Power of Siberia 2, which is set to deliver gas to China from Western Siberia.
Kazakhstan envisages joining the project by negotiating a possible route of Power of Siberia 2 through Kazakhstan.
“Implementation of this project is still a plan at this point; no concrete parameters have been outlined yet. ere are various options
of delivering Russian gas to China. We o ered to build this pipeline through Kazakhstan, if possible,” Nogayev said.
Nogayev, during his meeting with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, proposed to consider the option to construct the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline through Kazakhstan with a connection to China’s West-East pipeline system.
bne IntelliNews, February 19 2020
Hungary ‘could start
importing Azerbaijani gas
via SCG by 2023’
Hungary could start importing natural gas from Azerbaijan by 2023, according to Peter Szijjarto, Hungarian foreign a airs and trade minister, Trend reported on February 18 citing Hungary Today.
Szijjarto reportedly said an annual 1-2bn cubic metres of gas from Azerbaijan would greatly boost Hungary’s gas supply security. e imports will be made possible by the completion of the Southern Gas Corridor (SCG) which is to use interconnecting pipelines to bring Azerbaijani gas from Caspian Sea Shah Deniz resources to southern Italy.
Szijjarto was also cited as highlighting an agreement between Hungarian oil and gas company MOL and US company Chevron which resulted in MOL acquiring a 9.5% stake in the Azerbaijani-Chirag-Gunashli block of oil elds and a near-9% share in the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan oil pipeline running to Turkey.
bne IntelliNews, February 19 2020
P16
w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m
Week 07 19•February•2020