ICBC pledged a $1.2 billion loan in 2018 to BOTAŞ (Turkey's state-owned Petroleum Pipeline Company) for the Tuz Gölü Natural Gas Underground Storage Expansion Project (linked to #67688)

On June 27, 2018, at the "Belt and Road Investment and Financial Cooperation Summit," BOTAŞ General Manager Mr. Burhan Özcan and ICBC Chairman Gao Xiangyang signed a Memorandum of Understanding (关于地下储气库扩建项目开发的谅解备忘录), in which the ICBC pledged to provide a $1.2 billion loan to BOTAŞ (Turkey's state-owned Petroleum Pipeline Company) for the Tuz Gölü Natural Gas Underground Storage Expansion Project (or Tuz Golu Natural Gas Underground Storage Expansion Project). Anadolu Ajansı, a Turkish state-run media organization, reported that the loan has a maturity of 15 years and a 5 year grace period. The interest rate is unknown. The "Belt and Road Investment and Financial Cooperation Summit" was organized by the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, with the contribution of the ICBC and the Chinese Embassy. The 1.2 billion USD loan was, according to Anadolu Ajansı, one third of the 3.6 billion USD in loans pledged at the summit to various Turkish institutions for the energy and transportation sectors (see project #67688). The storage facility is located in the Sultanhani district in the province of Aksaray, 40 kilometers from the Salt Lake. After the expansion works, the capacity of Tuz Gölü (Lake Tuz) Natural Gas Storage Facility will increase from 1.2 billion cubic meters to approximately 5.4 billion cubic meters in the medium term. The capacity of Silivri Plant, where 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas can be stored, will also be increased. Groundbreaking on the Tuz Gölü project specifically took place in July 2019. As of 2020, implementation of both projects had begun, and both were expected to be completed by 2023. The World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) each provided a 600 million USD loan to the Tuz Gölü project as well (not the Silivri Plant). The lending from World Bank was a IBRD Flexible Loan with 22.5-years maturity and 7 year grace period. In March 2019, BOTAS awarded the design, supply and installation of the second phase of the Tuz Gölü Underground Storage Expansion Facility to a joint venture between China's Camc Engineering and Turkey's IC Ictas in a 1,800 day contract worth about 1.2 billion USD (more precisely, 808.2 million US dollars, 198.8 million euros, and 585.3 million Turkish Liras).

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