IGB to ink loan agreement with EIB by late 2018 – executive officer

An agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for preferential loan to finance the construction of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) is expected to be signed in December 2018, Teodora Georgieva, Executive Officer of ICGB AD (project company) on the Bulgarian side, told Trend.

The agreement concerns securing preferential loan financing in connection with using the state guarantee of Bulgaria for 110 million euros.

Georgieva noted that the actual utilization of the loan shall take place before the start of the construction phase.

"The due diligence procedure has been completed and a proposal for the provision of the loan passed the EIB internal approval procedure. At the current stage the drafting of the loan agreement has started. The agreement shall be aligned with the Ministry of Finance of Bulgaria, being the party providing the State Guarantee," she said.

In general, Georgieva noted that in terms of ensuring the required financing for the project the company is at very advanced stage.

IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets.

The initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas.