Azerbaijan has been negotiating with international financial institutions to borrow $5bn to fund its share of the construction costs of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) gas export route, finance minister Samir Sharifov said on 20 July.

He told UK daily Financial Times that talks are in progress with the World Bank (WB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Asian Development Bank.

A WB spokesman told NGW July 20 that it is considering supporting Azerbaijan’s investments in the SGC because of its critical importance to energy security in the region and to Azerbaijan’s development priorities. “At this moment, we are reviewing ways to support the investment in cooperation with other nancing partners and will fully disclose project documents in the course of project preparation,” the bank said.

Azerbaijan has already sold $1bn Eurobonds and is preparing to sell the same again in further bonds to nance SGC. A source at WB told NGW June 2 that “Baku has applied to the WB for a loan of $500mn, the talks are under way... the process should be wrapped up by the end of the year.” 

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