$880 million loan for U.S. exports to Colombia

$880 million loan for U.S. exports to Colombia    The U.S. Export-Import Bank has given final approval to a $420 million medium-term loan guarantee and a $459.8 million long-term loan guarantee to help finance the sale of goods and services from various U.S. exporters to Ecopetrol S.A., Colombia’s national oil company.
   These export sales will support an estimated 6,700 U.S. jobs, the bank said.
   Ecopetrol will use the financing to buy products and services from U.S. companies large and small, to develop oil and gas reserves, improve existing oil field production and upgrade refineries. The company plans to significantly increase petroleum production to 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2015.

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   Colombia is one of nine economies with a 'growing appetite for infrastructure development' that the bank has identified as offering U.S. companies the greatest opportunities for increased export sales.
   In January 2010 during a visit to Colombia, Ex-Im Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg announced the bank’s preliminary commitment of $1 billion to finance Ecopetrol's purchase of U.S. goods and services. The bank’s board subsequently approved conversions of the preliminary commitment into these two recently approved final commitments.
   Ex-Im Bank, an independent, self-sustaining federal agency, helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in export financing and strengthening U.S. export competitiveness.
   During the first quarter of fiscal year 2011, the bank approved $8 billion in total financing authorizations, supporting nearly $9.3 billion in export sales. The sales in turn support about 66,000 American jobs. In fiscal year 2010 overall, the bank authorized a record of $24.5 billion in loans, guarantees and insurance, supporting about 230,000 American jobs.