ALMATY (Reuters) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is considering extending the equivalent of $244 million in loans to two units of Kazakh gas pipeline operator Kaztransgas, the bank said on Monday.
If approved at the planned May 27 review, the local-currency loans will "support the company during the economic downturn and COVID-19 outbreak", the bank said in a brief project description.
State-owned Kaztransgas operates both domestic pipelines shipping natural gas across the Central Asian nation and export routes which link Kazakh, Uzbek, and Turkmen gas fields to consumers in China and Russia.
It also sells Kazakh gas to Chinese buyers, the biggest of which, PetroChina, declared force majeure last month due to the coronavirus outbreak, and reduced purchases of Kazakh gas by up to a quarter.