China Eximbank provides $300 million buyer’s credit loan to Gazprombank to facilitate the acquisition of Chinese drilling equipment

In October 2008, China Eximbank and Gazprombank — a privately-owned Russian bank — signed a $300 million loan framework agreement. Then, on June 17, 2009, China Eximbank and Gazprombank signed a buyer’s credit facility (loan) agreement worth approximately $300 million to facilitate the acquisition of Chinese drilling equipment. The loan had a maturity length of 7 years. Sinosure provided buyer’s credit insurance. The proceeds of the loan were to be used by the borrower to purchase drilling equipment manufactured by Honghua International Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Sichuan Honghua Petroleum Equipment Co., Ltd.) and Yantai Jereh Oilfield Services Group Co., Ltd. The equipment was intended for use in projects of the largest Russian and foreign oil and gas companies in Western and Eastern Siberia. It was envisaged that oilfield service company Eriell Neftegazservice LLC would operate the equipment. Russian manufacturers of drilling equipment opposed the deal . AidData has not yet confirmed that any disbursements were made through this loan. Nor has it confirmed the delivery of the drilling equipment.

Additional details

1. The Russian project title is поставок китайского бурового оборудования. 2. Gazprombank (Russian: Газпромбанк), or GPB (JSC), is a private-owned Russian bank, the third largest bank in the country by assets. Since November 2014, Yuri Shamalov's Gazfond is its largest shareholder. The bank’s principal business areas are corporate banking, retail banking, investment banking and depository services. Its banking activities also include securities trading, foreign exchange operations, precious metals operations, clearing operations and settlement services. The bank has a distribution network of 43 branches and over 260 banking outlets located throughout the Russian Federation. GPB also has ownership interests in three other Russian banks. In addition, Gazprombank is represented in the markets of Belarus and Switzerland through ownership interests in two foreign banks: Belgazprombank (Belarus) and Gazprombank (Switzerland) Ltd. Gazprombank also has representative offices in Mongolia, China and India. On February 24, 2022, US President Joe Biden announced sanctions against Gazprombank and other Russian financial institutions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In August 2022, the state capitalized Gazprombank by 50 billion rubles at the expense of the Russian National Wealth Fund. The authorized capital of the bank increased to 246.85 billion rubles. Now the state owns a share of 36.44%.

Number of official sources

3

Number of total sources

10