China Development Bank provides $2 billion loan for Atyrau Petrochemical Complex Construction Project (Linked to Project ID#40266)

In 2009, Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries (KPI) LLP signed an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract with Sinopec Engineering Co., Ltd. (through Sinopec Group subsidiary China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation) for the first stage of construction of Atyrau petrochemical project. On February 22, 2011, the Development Bank of Kazakhstan JSC (DBK) entered into a $1.4 billion credit agreement with the Export-Import Bank of China to finance the construction of an integrated petrochemical project in the Atyrau Region of Kazakstan. However, as of 2017, no amounts had been drawn down under this credit agreement. This was due to the mutual termination of the EPC contract between KPI and Sinopec in 2014. Therefore, AidData assumes that the China Eximbank loan was canceled (since the proceeds of this loan were to be used to fund the EPC contract with Sinopec). The loan cancellation is captured via Project ID#40266. Then, in December 2015, China National Chemical Engineering Corporation (CNCEC) signed an EPC contract with KPI to construct an integrated gas-chemical complex in the Atyrau Region on a turnkey basis. On September 3, 2016, the Xinjiang Branch of China Development Bank (CDB) signed a $2 billion loan agreement with KPI for the construction of the complex. The loan carried the following borrowing terms: a maturity of 20 years and an interest rate of 5.8%. National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna JSC provided a guarantee for this loan on February 13, 2017. The loan was also secured by (i.e. collateralized with) all current and future assets of KPI. On November 24, 2017, CDB sent an advance payment of $409 million to CNCEC. The project had a total cost of $2.6 billion; the CDB bank loan covered the entire cost of the $1.795 billion EPC contract with CNCEC; the remainder of the financing of the project was provided by the organizers of the project, KPI and its ownership. KPI was the project company (special purpose vehicle) responsible for the financing, design, and construction of the Atyrau Petrochemical Complex Construction Project. KPI was 99% owned by United Chemical Company LLP, a subsidiary of JSC Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna; the remaining 1% of KPI LLP was owned by a private investor, "Firm Almex Plus” LLP, part of part of one of the largest holding groups in Kazakhstan - “ALMEX Holding Group” Joint-Stock Company. 42 construction and installation companies were involved in the construction and installation work; 39 of which were Kazakhstani and 3 of which were foreign. The Kazakhstani companies included AtyrauNefteMash LLP, which produced the propane and propylene splitter, "Petropavlovsk Plant of Heavy Machine Building" JSC and Sewon-Vertex Heavy Industries received orders for the production of 35 units and heat exchangers with a total weight. Imstalcon JSC participated in the manufacture of equipment for the project, while the Kazakh Institute of Oil and Gas JSC participated in the design of the complex. Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (CB&I) received the PMC contract for project management. The project was transferred from Samruk-Kazyna to the trust management of JSC NC KazMunayGas (KMG) in June 2018. Upon completion, the petrochemical complex was expected to produce 500,000 tons of polypropylene per year and be the first integrated gas-chemical complex in Kazakhstan. The plant was expected to go online in 2020. On November 27, 2017, KPI sent a notice of the start of construction work to the general contractor. The message was received and work began on December 11, 2017. As of October 2020, the project had achieved a 77% completion rate and it was expected to be fully complete in 2021 In June 2021, the project had achieved a completion rate of nearly 90%.

Additional details

1. This project is sometimes referred to as "Construction of the first integrated gas chemical complex in Atyrau oblast," "Construction of an integrated gas chemical complex in the Atyrau region - the first phase (polypropylene), or "Integrated Gas Chemical Complex (Phase I – polypropylene production). The Russian project title is газохимический комплекс по производству полипропилена." 2. With respect to AidData's coding of the collateral and guarantee variables, the relevant passage from "ГОДОВОЙ ОТЧЕТ 2018 год" is on pg.141: "Заём был выдан под залог движимого и недвижимого имущества Компании «ТОО KPI», включая поступающие в будущем. В 2017 году АО ФНБ «СамрукКазына» предоставил гарантию в пользу ГБРК до полного исполнения Группой своих обязательств перед банком."

Number of official sources

16

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32