News

WASHINGTON - The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) Board of Directors today unanimously voted to notify the U.S. Congress, pursuant to the law, of its consideration of two transactions that would facilitate the authorization of a $350 million general facility and $50 million small business facility (SBF) for Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). If approved, the combined $400 million financing facilities would support an estimated 1,700 jobs in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas in the oilfield services industry, which has faced difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. EXIM received the applications from PEMEX for the facilities in March 2020.

The 2015-2019 lapse in EXIM's Board quorum suspended the agency's 76-year association with Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company that conducts exploration, production, industrial processing and refining, logistics, and marketing. During the four-year absence of a Board quorum at EXIM, China sought to step into the breach to grow its influence in the region and pursued closer ties with Pemex, notwithstanding the company's previous financings with EXIM.

These transactions will help fill in private sector financing gaps and provide certainty to an industry suffering in the current economic climate because of the global pandemic shutdown, as well as provide a valuable alternative to Chinese offerings. EXIM financing under these transactions also will facilitate the purchase of U.S. oil and gas equipment and services provided to approximately 21 oil and gas field projects.

"With today's unanimous Board action to notify Congress of these potential transactions, EXIM is taking a step toward supporting more American jobs and small business exports and furthering our nation's prosperity and security. In addition to being our neighbor, Mexico is the United States' second-largest export market and third-largest trading market," said EXIM President and Chairman of the Board Kimberly A. Reed. "In addition to supporting an estimated 1,700 jobs in 11 states across the United States, these authorizations would help counter financing competition from foreign export credit agencies, including from China, and reinforce to our allies and partners around the globe-including Mexico-that EXIM is open for business."

"The EXIM Board of Directors has taken important steps to support American workers by voting to notify Congress of these transactions that would support 1,700 jobs nationwide," said EXIM Board Member Spencer T. Bachus, III. "EXIM is fulfilling its purpose of by providing access to liquidity when commercial lenders are unable or unwilling to assume the risk."

ABOUT EXIM:

EXIM is an independent federal agency that promotes and supports American jobs by providing competitive and necessary export credit to support sales of U.S. goods and services to international buyers. A robust EXIM can level the global playing field for U.S. exporters when they compete against foreign companies that receive support from their governments. EXIM also contributes to U.S. economic growth by helping to create and sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs in exporting businesses and their supply chains across the United States. In recent years, approximately 90 percent of the total number of the agency's authorizations has directly supported small businesses. Since 1992, EXIM has generated more than $9 billion for the U.S. Treasury for repayment of U.S. debt.

For more information about EXIM, please visit www.exim.gov