Sibneftegaz, which is majority-owned by Itera and has a license to develop the Beregovoye gas and condensate deposit in West Siberia, took out a $200-mln five-year loan from Sberbank in late 2003 under a non-revolving loan facility agreement to develop the deposit's infrastructure and reimburse earlier expenditures under the project.
Itera and Sberbank will sign a contract of surety and an agreement on the pledge of the Sibneftegaz stock as security for Sibneftegaz's obligations under the loan facility.
Itera announced June 29 it would sell a 51% stake in Sibneftegaz to Gazprombank, a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom. Gazprombank board chairman Andrei Akimov and Itera chief executive Igor Makarov signed a cooperation agreement on the development of the Beregovoye deposit, which has estimated reserves of 320 billion cu m of natural gas, 4.9 million metric tons of gas condensate and 7.5 million tons (55 million bbl) of oil.
