$200 m loans for Lukoil-Odessa refinery

The Cyprus-registered company SLB Invest Limited has opened a credit facility of US$200 m for the establishment of the Lukoil-Odessa refinery. This facility is in place for just under a year and will be used for supplement and replenishment existing capital reserves. The first tranche of US$4.8 m has been already transferred.

This is not the Cyprus’ company’s first collaboration with the refinery plant. In November 2007 SLB Invest opened a credit line of US$100 m and in October 2008 this sum was increased to US$260 m. 99.57% of the shares of Odessa plant are under the control of Russian company Lukoil which has the second-largest reserves among private companies globally. From July 2005 to March 2008 a major refinery plant modernisation programme was carried out to improve product quality by initiating production of Euro-3 petrol and Euro-4 diesel production. The plant’s processing capacity is about 2.8 m tonnes of oil per year.