Citizens of Azerbaijan and foreigners, as well as local and foreign entities, will be able to subscribe to the bonds, although the priority will be given to individual investors, the company said in a statement.  Foreigners and foreign legal entities will also be able to buy from bondholders in the secondary market.

The agency said that the rating was support-driven, but was one notch below Uzbekistan’s ‘BB-’ long-term local-currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR).

KazTransOil JSC said it had carried out work to connect the newly built sections of the Russia-bound Uzen-Atyrau-Samara main oil pipeline after reconstruction.

The country’s economy, which relies heavily on oil and gas production, took a serious hit from a decline in global oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first quarter, the economy shrank by 1.3 percent.

Azerbaijan and Armenia remained in a deadlock as the two antagonists inched forward with the tedious process of demarcating their borders. At the heart of the matter is restoring long-closed trade routes.