Daily Sabah (Turkey)

Massive Chinese bank funding energy projects in Turkey

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THE INDUSTRIAL and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), one of the world’s largest banks, will provide a $3.6-billion loan package for Turkey’s energy and transporta­tion sectors, Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said Thursday. “The $3.6 billion loan package from Chinese financial institutio­ns for energy and transporta­tion sector investment­s – private sector, public institutio­ns and banks – has been approved,” Albayrak said on his official social media account. The minister added that negotiatio­ns during his visit to China were “fruitful.” Earlier in May, Albayrak visited a number of institutio­ns in China and held a number of key meetings with Chinese representa­tives, including the ICBC.

ALBAYRAK also met officials of the State Power Investment Corporatio­n (SPIC), State Nuclear Power Technology Company (SNPTC), China’s National Energy Administra­tion (NEA), Chinese Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA) and State Grid Corporatio­n of China. Turkey’s state-owned Petroleum Pipeline Company (BOTAŞ) and ICBC signed Thursday a memorandum of understand­ing (MoU) to finance - $1.2 billion with a maturity of 15 years - in capacity increase projects at the Silivri and Lake Tuz Natural Gas Storage Facilities, which will be able to store 20 percent of Turkey’s annual natural gas consumptio­n.

According to the agreement, a third of ICBC’s $3.6 billion financing package for Turkey will be allocated to natural gas storage investment­s, including at Silivri and Lake Tuz Natural Gas Storage Facilities. Support provided as a project loan will have a maturity of 15 years, with no grace period for the first five years. The capacity of the Lake Tuz Natural Gas Storage Facility, which was inaugurate­d last year, will increase from 1.2 billion cubic meters to about 5.4 billion cubic meters in the medium term following the expansion works. Likewise, the capacity of Silivri facility, which can store 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas, will be increased to 4.6 billion cubic meters. By 2023, both natural gas storage facilities will have a total capacity of 10 billion cubic meters, about 20 percent of Turkey’s annual natural gas consumptio­n.

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