The team from UniCredit Bank Russia took an active part in a 12 year credit-facility agreement signed LUKOIL Overseas Shah Deniz Ltd. (a fully-owned PJSC LUKOIL subsidiary) with a consortium of banks to borrow USD 1 billion under the second stage of the Production Sharing Agreement of the Shah Deniz Project in Azerbaijan.

UniCredit Bank Austria AG entered the commercial banking syndicate that will provide USD 440 million of that amount for a period of 10 years via B Loan programs of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Besides UniCredit Bank Austria AG the syndicate comprising of the ING Bank N.V., the Bank of China and Societe Generale. The remaining amount, USD 560 million will be provided for 12 years jointly by the EBRD, ADB and the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB).

The UniCredit Group team included UniCredit Bank Austria AG; UniCredit Bank AG, London Branch and UniCredit Bank Russia (Financing Department and Large Corporates Department).

Tatiana Kondratieva, Head of Financing Department, commented: “Russian UniCredit Bank and the LUKOIL Group have a longstanding partnership that helped us to arrange several transactions for the company this year. In this case we once again successfully used benefits from cooperation within UniCredit Group between offices in London, Vienna, Munich and Moscow to provide finance in the most optimal way for all parties involved.”

Stage 2 of Shah Deniz started in December 2013. The total amount of investments provided by the operating consortium (BP, 28.83%; TPAO, 19%; Petronas, 15.5%; SOCAR, 10%; LUKOIL, 10%; NICO, 10%; and SGC, 6.67%) will be approximately USD 28 billion, excluding the construction of the export pipeline systems. The annual total Shah Deniz Stage 1 and Stage 2 production will peak at 25 billion cubic meters of natural gas.