Bank of China participates in $675 million syndicated secured loan agreement for Ust-Luga Oil Products Terminal Project

Project narrative

On September 17, 2013, Gunvor Group and a group of banks signed a $675 million syndicated secured facility agreement for the Ust-Luga Oil Products Terminal Project. Credit Suisse International acted as Coordinator and Mandated Lead Arranger (“MLA”); Gazprombank (Open Joint–stock Company), Raiffeisen Bank International AG, ZAO Raiffeisenbank, Natixis, Bank of China (UK) Limited as MLA; ABN AMRO Bank N.V. as Lead Arranger and VTB Bank (Deutschland) AG as Arranger. The Ust-Luga Oil Products Terminal in Leningrad Oblast is considered to be the largest rail/ocean transshipment terminal in the world, with a projected capacity of more than 30 million metric tons per annum. Gunvor Group managed its construction, development and the successful commencement of its operations for the transshipment of fuel oil since 2011 and light products since May 2013. Then, on August 28, 2013, Ust-Luga Oil Products Terminal completed the first loading of a vessel from its new third jetty, which is capable of serving large tankers with a capacity of up to 300,000 deadweight tons. When fully completed, Ust-Luga Oil Products Terminal was expected to have a total storage capacity of about 960,000 cubic meters. It was also expected to be able to simultaneously discharge four 72-railtank car trains and two 47-railtank car trains for fuel oil, and two 72-railtank car trains for light products, with more than one kilometer of berthing space available. Construction of the terminal was ultimately completed in 2015. Then, in October 2017, Transneft bought a 25% ownership stake in Ust-Luga Oil Products Terminal from businessman Andrei Bokarev.