As you know, on March 24 this year, as part of the official visit of the Head of State of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UAE, a number of agreements were signed between the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Samruk-Kazyna JSC, Partnership and Borealis regarding the joint implementation of the project “Construction of the first integrated gas chemical complex in Atyrau region. Phase 2 (production of polyethylene)” (hereinafter – the Project). The estimated production capacity of the Project is up to 1 250 thousand tons of polyethylene per year, worth about USD6.5 billion.

To consolidate the package of state support measures and transition to the design and structuring stage of the Project, it is necessary to sign an Intergovernmental Agreement (hereinafter – IGA), which includes the entire list of conditions stipulated in the “Memorandum on the Principal Conditions of Cooperation” requested by Borealis.

In this regard, on July 09 this year, the Minister of Energy, K. Bozumbayev, by his order, established a working group to develop a unified position on the draft Intergovernmental Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Government of the United Arab Emirates on the implementation of the Project (hereinafter – WG IGA).

On August 23 this year, Astana hosted the first meeting of the WG IGA with the participation of representatives of Borealis and with the involvement of international consultants to clarify the conditions of the investor to enter the Project, taking into account the existing practices of implementing similar projects in developing countries and Central Asian countries.

During the meeting, issues of state support for the Project, key requirements, justifications and next steps in the implementation of the Project were discussed.

A number of important issues related to the Project were also discussed, in particular, issues on possible risks of the Project, project financing and creditors’ expectations were discussed.