EBRD to lend $500m for Azerbaijan gas pipeline
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has approved crucial $500m financing for a pipeline to bring Azeri gas from the Caspian Sea to the EU, despite questions about Azerbaijan’s record on corruption and democracy.
The bank’s board approved the loan on Wednesday to a mostly Azeri-owned consortium building the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline, or Tanap. The project is the central link in the so-called Southern Gas Corridor aimed at reducing Europe’s reliance on Russian gas, FT reports.
The $40bn, 3,500km corridor is one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the global oil and gas industry. It will bring Caspian gas through three linked pipelines across Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece and the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy, and has been designated one of the EU’s “priority projects”.
