Skip to content
AidData logo

Overview

China Eximbank provides $53 million loan for Ollombo Airport Construction Project (Linked to Record ID#60219)

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$99,455,353
Commitment Year•2006Country of Activity•CongoDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•CongoSector•Transport And StorageFlow Type•Loan

Status

Project lifecycle

Completion

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
Jun 19, 2006
Start (actual)
Aug 12, 2007
End (actual)
Mar 13, 2013
First repayment
Dec 31, 2009
Last repayment
Jun 28, 2022

Geospatial footprint

Map overview

Visualizes the AidData-provided feature geometry for this project.

Loading map…

This project involved the construction of Ollombo International Airport, which is located 9 km (5.6 mi) southwest of Oyo, near the village of Ollombo, and 450 km north of Brazzaville. More detailed locational information can be found at https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/998329722

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Ultimate beneficial owners

At least 25% host country ownership

Funding agencies

State-owned Policy Banks

  • Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank)

Receiving agencies

Government Agencies

  • Government of Republic of Congo

Implementing agencies

State-owned companies

  • China Jiangsu International

Collateral providers

State-owned companies

  • Société Nationales des Pétroles Congolais (SNPC)

Loan desecription

China Eximbank provides $53 million loan for Ollombo Airport Construction Project

Grace period•4 yearsGrant element•58.3684%Interest rate (t₀)•0.25%Interest type•Fixed Interest RateMaturity•16.5 years

Collateral

This China Eximbank loan -- and other subsidiary China Eximbank loans approved under a June 19, 2006 framework agreement that was renewed/extended in 2012 -- was collateralized against cash proceeds from SNPC oil export sales to Chinese importers (through an offtake agreement), which were deposited in a China Eximbank-controlled escrow account. The Republic of Congo was required to maintain a minimum cash balance in the escrow account equivalent to approximately 20% of its total outstanding debt to China Eximbank. The cash balance in the China Eximbank-controlled escrow account was $534,238,226 (CFA 272,846,414,000) in 2011, an unknown amount in 2012, an unknown amount in 2013, an unknown amount in 2014, an unknown amount in 2015 (equivalent to 26% of SNPC oil sales in 2015), $281,560,937 in 2016 (equivalent to 7,558,672 barrels of oil or 32% of SNPC oil sales in 2016), $338,285,020 in 2017 (equivalent to 23.25% of SNPC oil sales in 2017), $513,780,005 in 2018 (equivalent to 7,411,386 barrels of oil, eight oil cargoes, or 30.22% of SNPC oil sales in 2018), $523,547,187 in 2019 (equivalent to 8,228,065 barrels of oil, 9 oil cargoes, or 32.56% of SNPC oil sales in 2019), $266,659,781 in 2020 (equivalent to 6,349,813 barrels of oil, 7 oil cargoes, or 31.61% of SNPC oil sales in 2020), $319,164,228 in 2021 (equivalent to 4,585,056 barrels of oil or 21.4% of SNPC oil sales in 2021), and $356,343,684 in 2022 (equivalent to 3,634,514 barrels of oil 13.09% of SNPC oil sales in 2022).

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

On June 19, 2006, China Eximbank and the Republic of Congo signed a $1.6 billion loan framework agreement — also known in the Republic of Congo as the “strategic partnership” (“partenariat stratégique”) — that allowed the Republic of Congo to obtain China Eximbank loans for infrastructure projects through a securitization mechanism: Société Nationales des Pétroles Congolais (SNPC)—the country’s state-owned oil company—agreed to deposit a portion of the cash proceeds from its oil exports into an escrow account that is controlled by China Eximbank. This framework agreement (captured in Record ID#60219) was ratified on October 26, 2006. One of the subsidiary loans that was approved through the framework agreement was a $53 million loan in 2006 for the Ollombo Airport Construction Project. The estimated borrowing terms of the loan are as follows: 0.25% interest rate, 16.5-year maturity, and 4-year grace period. As of 2014, USD 53 million had been disbursed. Its (principal) amount outstanding was $3,118.155 as of December 31, 2019. This project involved the construction of Ollombo International Airport, which is located 9 km (5.6 mi) southwest of Oyo, near the village of Ollombo, and 450 km north of Brazzaville. More specifically, the project involved the construction of terminals, a tower, and power control center. China Jiangsu International Economic Technical Cooperation Corporation was the contractor responsible for project implementation. A project commencement ceremony took place on August 12, 2007. However, construction did not begin until October 2008 and ended on March 13, 2013. China Jiangsu International also carried out works on the Ollombo Airport Garage, between November 2013 and August 2014, but it is unclear if these works were funded with the proceeds from the same loan.

Staff comments

1. This project is also known as the Oyo Ollombo Airport Construction Project. The Chinese project title is 奥龙博机场项目 or 奥龙博机场 or 江苏国际Ollombo机场 or 刚果(布）ollombo机场项目. The French project title is La construction des installations terminales de l’aéroport d’Ollombo or Aéroport International Denis SASSOU-N’GUESSO d’Ollombo. 2. The loan that supported this project is not included in the database of Chinese loan commitments that SAIS-CARI released in July 2020. Nor is it included in the the Chinese Overseas Development Finance Dataset published by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center in December 2020. However, the Congolese authorities disclosed the receipt of this loan to the World Bank, which it in turn reported in a September 2014 Republic of Congo Economic Update publication. 3. According to a 2019 report published by the Republic of Congo’s National Assembly, all loans approved under the framework agreement had an interest rate of 0.25%, maturities between 13 years and 20 years, and grace periods between 3 and 5 years. Therefore, since the maturity of the China Eximbank loan for the Ollombo Airport Construction Project is missing, AidData imputes a value (16.5 years) at the middle of the distribution of this maturity range as an approximation. Likewise, since the grace period of the loan is missing, AidData imputes a value (4 years) at the middle of the distribution of this range as an approximation.