(TFX News, London, 12 December 2016) ECAs are to offer guarantees for two LNG projects in Mozambique, as commercial lenders watch closely to see how talks progress between the government and the IMF before committing to the project. Export credit agencies (ECAs), including the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim), France’s Coface, Italy’s Sace, and the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim), are set to play a key role in the financing of two Rovuma Basin liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects planned in the north of Mozambique.
ECAWatch Newsletter 12
Papua New Guinea troops to protect huge Exxon-Mobil Ex-Im supported gas project
(wsws.org, Jacksonville, 19 December 2016) The Papua New Guinea (PNG) government announced on Friday that it will deploy military personnel to stop “violence” near the country’s biggest resources installation, the Exxon-Mobil Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project…The security and viability of the ExxonMobil operation is a key concern in Washington. In November 2010, then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited PNG and noted that the US Export-Import Bank was helping finance the ExxonMobil project, noting “China is in there every day in every way trying to figure out how it’s going to come in behind us, come in under us.”… Traditional landowners are now threatening to physically attack the LNG plant over the government’s failure to pay promised royalties and equity in the project. The landowners are owed $1 billion kina ($US315 million) in royalties.
Jubilee Australia has had concerns about the potential militarisation of the project since its inception,’ said Director Luke Fletcher . ‘We first raised these concerns in 2009 in our Risky Business report, and more fully developed them in 2012 with Pipe Dreams.’ He questioned the characterisation of the violence as simply tribal. “If that is so, why has it suddenly broken out now, just as landowner unhappiness with the project escalates? And why engage Exxon and Oil Search (project operators) to assist with policing the area?
Bleak Future for Oil Opens Nigeria’s Nexim Bank Policy for Re-Examination
(This Day Live, Lagos, 19 December 2015) Given that oil remains the basis upon which Nigeria’s national budget is benchmarked, the downturn opens the country up to harsh vulnerabilities. Since this reality was fairly foreseen and foretold by development analysts it rightly ought not to have met Nigeria unprepared, right? To be fair to government, specific proactive steps had long been taken by governments including mandating a development finance agency with the responsibility of designing and driving the vision to promote and grow the non-oil sectors of the economy. That obligation fell on the laps of the nation’s flagship development finance agency, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank, NEXIM.
US Export-Import Bank Is Revived
(Wall Street Journal, Washington, 9 December 2015) Legislation signed by President Barack Obama on Friday resurrected the U.S. Export-Import Bank and ended a five-month lapse that revealed far stronger bipartisan backing for the agency than the pitched battle to shut it down suggested. The outcome now gives the bank a firm footing until September 2019, but the brawl over its existence this year left both economic and political scars. The New York Times however has reported that: Yet an obstacle remains: With three empty seats on its five-member board, the bank lacks a quorum. Until Mr. Obama nominates members, and the Republican-controlled Senate confirms them, Ex-Im Bank can only approve small export deals, not the big orders for aircraft, satellites and major manufacturing equipment the bank is best known for — leaving the likes of Boeing, General Electric and Caterpillar in limbo.
Egypt: 5 bln Euros from SACE to support Italian firms and export
(Ansamed, Rome, 11 December 2015) The Italian export credit agency SACE has announced five billion euros in operations being assessed to support Italian export and firms in Egypt, one of the most strategic markets for the country in the Mediterranean. SACE has in Egypt a portfolio of insured transactions worth 1.6 billion euros, mostly in the energy, petrochemicals and infrastructure and constructions sectors, including both large Italian companies and many SMES.
Sovcomflot Group and Sberbank CIB sign $340 million long-term credit facility agreement
(Your Oil & Gas News, Aberdeen, 22 December 2015) Sovcomflot Group and Sberbank CIB have signed a 14-year $340 million credit facility agreement to finance the construction of three Arctic shuttle tankers for the Novy Port project (project operator: Gazprom Neft). Commenting on the transaction, Nikolay Kolesnikov, Chief Financial Officer of Sovcomflot, said: “With this new financing Sovcomflot will have raised a total of over USD 900 million of long-term debt finance from commercial banks and export credit agencies in the course of 2015.”
Shady dealings; How Atradius Dutch State Business fails to adequately screen the businesses it supports
(Both ENDS, Amsterdam, December 2015) In November 2013, Both ENDS published a study on Atradius DSB’s support for complex export transactions that were structured via tax havens, and thus its potential underwriting of aggressive tax avoidance positions that corrode the tax sovereignty of beneficiary countries. In that study it emerged that the possibility of money laundering being part of such complex transactions could also not be excluded. A new report, based on sustained and regular monitoring of transactions supported by Atradius DSB, firmly suggests that the practices previously criticized continue. We again challenge Atradius DSB to introduce effective screening to exclude export transactions that have a high probability of including tax evasion and money laundering from its insurance services.
Russia Will Give Iran $2.2 Billion State Export Credit in 2016
(Sputnik News, Tehran, 23 December 2015) Russia plans to provide Iran with $2.2 billion in state export credit in 2016 as part of a $5 billion loan plan, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Thursday.
Allow Indian infrastructure firms to access medium term foreign debt: Centre tells RBI
(India Times, New Delhi, 27 December 2015) The government has asked the Reserve Bank of India to reconsider its external commercial borrowing (ECB) norms to allow foreign currency debt to infrastructure sector for medium term also. Sources said Transport and Highways Secretary Chhibber has written that “many export credit agencies are required to follow OECD arrangements wherein a member is not permitted to extend export credit beyond a period of 10 years for all categories (except non nuclear power plants) for a category II country such as India, whereas the revised ECB framework allow Indian infrastructure companies to access long term foreign currency borrowings with a minimum average maturity of 10 years (under Track II)”.
Paris Club agrees to restructure Cuba’s debt, cancels interest
(Post News, Zambia, 15 December 2015) According to the Paris Club, representatives of the Group of Creditors of Cuba and of the Government of the Republic of Cuba met from December 10-12 and on Saturday came up with an arrangement to clear US$2.6 billion of debt in arrears due to the Group of Creditors of Cuba over an 18-year period. After striking the agreement, Paris Club said the Group of Creditors of Cuba’s export credit agencies that wish to do so will resume their export credit activities. The Group of Creditors of Cuba includes Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
