China Eximbank restructures a $199.5 million USD preferential buyer’s credit for the KazMunayGas Atyrau Refinery Project (Linked to Record ID#54798)

On October 15, 2012, China Eximbank signed a loan agreement providing $199.5 million USD preferential buyer's credit (PBC) to the Development Bank of Kazakhstan JSC (DBK) for the KazMunayGas Atyrau Refinery Project (see #54798). The loan's maturity date was October 15, 2025, and it carried an interest rate of 3% per annum.

This loan agreement was amended on October 30, 2014; however, the terms of the revision are unknown. It is unclear whether DBK on-lent the proceeds of this PBC loan to Atyrau Refinery LLP. As of June 30, 2017, the aggregate principal amount outstanding under the PBC loan was $179.5 million USD. The total cost of the KazMunayGas Atyrau Refinery Project was $1,679,892,000.52 USD.

It was also financed by a $251,983,878 USD loan dated on August 17, 2012 (№DBZI 241-E / 05-01) from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan JSC, a $297,500,000 USD loan dated August 8, 2012 from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), and three loans dated July 27, 2012, November 13, 2012, and December 29, 2012 that collectively amounted to ₸20,790,000 KZT from JSC KazMunayGaz - Refining and Marketing.

The loans also covered commissions for arranging loans and insurance premiums.

The loans from Eximbank, JBIC (which may have involved the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.), and DBK were all guaranteed by JSC NC “KazMunayGas”. Sinopec subsidiary Sinopec Luoyang Engineering Co., Ltd. was involved in the implementation of the project. Atyrau Refinery is one of the largest refineries in Kazakhstan and in 2011 refined 100,000 bbl of crude oil every day.

The project sought to increase the productivity of Atyrau Refinery to 5.5 million tons per year and oil refining efficiency to 87%, gaining the yield of motor fuel up to 77%, corresponding to the international standards of Euro-4 and Euro-5.

The project included the construction of 12 individual process units, a main facility with a catalytic cracking unit, designed for the conversion by delayed coking of the atmospheric distillation residues, heavy gas oil, vacuum gas oil and heavy gas oil into liquified petroleum gas, gasoline, and light cracking gas oil.

The complex was set to include LPG desulfurization facilities, oligomerization, a naphtha hydro-treating unit, a gasoline and gas oil catalytic cracking unit, hydrogen production, isomerization units, etc.. The project's groundbreaking ceremony was held on September 10, 2012.

It was expected that the implementation period would be 41 months from the groundbreaking ceremony which took place in February 2016. The project was formally handed over on May 30, 2019.