OHIO COMPANY TO INCREASE WORKFORCE WITH EXPORTS
BSI Industries, Inc., a family-owned company in Derwent, OH, is exporting over $60 million of equipment and services for an underground natural gas storage system in Uzbekistan, backed by financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). The sale to Uzbekneftegas, the state-owned oil and gas company, is estimated to support more than 300 jobs at BSI, Dresser-Rand Co., Olean, NY and other U.S. suppliers in Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois and New York.
At least 40 jobs at BSI Industries and our affiliate Basic Systems, Inc. will be dedicated to this project alone, said Vladimir Gokun, BSI Industries Executive Vice President. We will probably hire another 10 employees. The project will support 100 jobs at Dresser-Rand. Mr. Gokun said BSI Industries has exported to Russia, Estonia and Ukraine, but this is the company`s first project in Uzbekistan: It gives us an important new market opportunity in this region.
Dresser-Rand is a world-class operation, said U.S. Rep. Amo Houghton (R-NY). This financing plays a key enabling role in making their deal possible as well as the jobs associated with it. Exactly the critical need Ex-Im Bank is designed to fill.
Ex-Im Bank`s guarantee of a loan by Chase Manahattan Bank NA Inc., Brooklyn, NY was needed to make the export happen because private sector lenders currently are unwilling to provide term financing in Uzbekistan without official export credit agency support. BSI Industries won the contract over competing bids from exporters in France, Germany, Austria and Israel.
BSI Industries, as engineering and procurement contractor, will design and build a gas compression station and two gas gathering stations for the project. Dresser-Rand will provide gas generators, power turbines and compressors. Specialty equipment will be provided by other small- and medium-size suppliers.
Uzbekneftegas is developing an underground gas storage system to handle seasonal fluctuations in demand for natural gas in the Andizhan region in the eastern part of the country. The gas will be stored in a nearby depleted oil field next to a pipeline that feeds into a larger pipe system providing gas to Tashkent.
BSI Industries is a marketing, procurement and financing company. Its affiliate, Basic Systems, is an engineering firm.
Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal government agency that supports American jobs by financing U.S. exports around the world. In the past five years Ex-Im Bank has authorized $65.6 billion of financing in over 10,000 transactions. Annually, the Bank sustains an estimated 200,000 U.S. jobs directly, and another one million jobs indirectly.