BTB Bank (Azerbaijan) grants loan to build methanol plant

BTB Bank (Azerbaijan) and Azerbaijan methanol Company (AzMeCo) signed a loan agreement worth $30 million, AzMeCo reported on Tuesday.

The agreement envisages the methanol plant construction in Baku. The plant will be the only one in Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Its production capacity will be 720,000 tons of methanol a year with the possibility of recycling of CO2, the factory setting will capture CO2 emitted into the atmosphere in amounts of about 250,000 tons a year. This ecological aspect of AzMeCo allows it to receive carbon credits.

"We appreciate the cooperation with BTB Bank, which is an advanced and rapidly developing bank," AzMeCo President Nizami Piriyev said. "The methanol plant construction project is a unique one."

The uniqueness of this project, he said, is that methanol is the "energy of the 21st century," as Nobel Prize winner George Olah said. It is possible to substantially reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere and thus save the environment with the use of methanol in the energy sector, Piriyev said.

BTB Bank (Azerbaijan) President and Board Chairman Oleg Krosnozhon also appreciated the cooperation and underlined the importance of such projects for the country.
The methanol plant construction will contribute to the further development of Azerbaijan's economy. A large loan issued by the Bank indicates a serious proposal to conduct large transactions financed by the Bank in the future.

The Azerbaijani consulting company ACG is the financial advisor to the agreement.

BTB is a dynamic international financial group, represented in 21 countries in Western Europe, Asia and Africa.

BTB Bank is the core of the BTB Group and one of the leaders of Russia's banking sector.
Its main shareholder is the Russian government with a share of 75.5 percent. BTB shares are traded on MICEX, RTS and LSE. BTB Bank (Azerbaijan) is a subsidiary of Bank BTB and offers a wide range of internationally accepted banking practice.

AZMECO is a dynamic company founded in 2007 in Azerbaijan to invest in petrochemical projects as an owner and operator. The company is entirely privately owned and leads the way in development, implementation and project financing of large projects in Azerbaijan. In addition to its portfolio of international hydrocarbon investments in the Caspian basin, AZMECO has a master plan of investment in Azerbaijan's two big plants.


/Trend/