Ex-Im Bank Approves $37.6 Million Loan For Gas Compression Export To Trinidad and Tobago; Supports 350 Jobs In Three States

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) announced today its approval of a $37.6 million direct loan to support exports by McDermott International Inc. and five American suppliers of natural gas compression equipment and technology for a United Kingdom energy project off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago. 

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The Bank's financing will support approximately 350 jobs in Texas, California, and Louisiana, according to bank estimates derived from Departments of Commerce and Labor data and methodology.

"I'm pleased that McDermott International Inc. and its suppliers won this project and will support so many American jobs," said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg.  "In a complex gas production project like this, U.S. engineers and high-tech manufacturers have a lot to offer.  The Bank's financing helped pull these jobs to U.S. companies, instead of seeing them go to foreign competitors."

Under terms of the direct loan, Ex-Im Bank is supporting exports of U.S.-only goods and services to a $150 million project to construct and install a gas compression system on the existing Hibiscus Platform situated off the northern coast of Trinidad.  The borrower is BG Energy Holding Limited, and the buyer is BG Trinidad and Tobago (BGTT), which is responsible for 46 percent of the larger project.

McDermott International Inc. was hired to provide the detail engineering, equipment procurement, unit fabrication, transportation, heavy lift and installation.  The company is responsible also for start-up and commissioning.  Houston-based McDermott International Inc. is an engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) company that executes complex offshore oil and gas projects worldwide.

Five U.S. suppliers will manufacture or provide components for the project.  SOLAR Turbines Inc., based in San Diego, California, is a Caterpillar Inc. subsidiary that produces gas turbine-powered compressor sets and pipeline equipment to transmit natural gas.  Another U.S. manufacturer, Hudson Products Corporation of Sugarland, Texas, will export air-cooled heat exchanger equipment for the Trinidad project.  The export supplier of valve controllers will be AWC Inc. (formerly American Warrior Compression) of Houston, Texas.  Massive fabricated metal tanks and gas-scrubbers will be supplied by a small business, the South Houston-based manufacturer Gulfex Inc.  The Louisiana exporter involved is Point Eight Power of Belle Chasse, a specialty provider of electrical power systems for offshore operations; Point Eight will supply instrumentation and switchgear.

ABOUT EX-IM BANK:
Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing at no cost to American taxpayers. In the past five years (from Fiscal Year 2008), Ex-Im Bank has earned for U.S. taxpayers nearly $1.6 billion above the cost of operations. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees, export-credit insurance and financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services.

Ex-Im Bank approved $35.8 billion in total authorizations in FY 2012 – an all-time Ex-Im record. This total includes more than $6 billion directly supporting small-business export sales – also an Ex-Im record. Ex-Im Bank's total authorizations are supporting an estimated $50 billion in U.S. export sales and approximately 255,000 American jobs in communities across the country. For more information, visit www.exim.gov.

SOURCE Export-Import Bank of the United States

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