Ex-Im Bank OKs Turkmenistan pipeline loan

The U.S. Export-Import Bank has approved a $96 million long-term loan guarantee for the sale of gas compression equipment and related engineering services for a gas pipeline upgrade project in Turkmenistan. Bateman Engineering Inc., Denver, will supply the engineering services. Dresser Rand Co., Corning, N.Y., and General Electric Co., Schenectady, N.Y., will provide compressors and power turbines.

April 13, 1998

Bateman Engineering Inc., Denver, will supply the engineering services. Dresser Rand Co., Corning, N.Y., and General Electric Co., Schenectady, N.Y., will provide compressors and power turbines.

The pipeline upgrade will allow Turkmenistan to transport and sell natural gas abroad, increasing the country's gas export earnings. It is the first time Ex-Im Bank has financed a petroleum project in Turkmenistan.

Total cost of the project is $180 million. Export credit agencies from Israel and the Czech Republic also will provide financing. The borrower is the State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of Turkmenistan.

"Turkmenistan's vast oil and gas sector represents a huge potential export market for U.S. goods and services," Ex-Im Bank said, adding that it believes "this is the first of many more infrastructure projects in Turkmenistan that we will finance in the future."