BTFG and EX-IM Bank Facilitate U.S. Equipment Export to Romania
Barrett Trade & Finance Group, LLC has completed a financing arrangement that allows a Romanian environmental remediation firm to purchase $7.5 million in U.S equipment to help begin the process of cleaning up oil pools that have plagued the country for decades.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank has backed the sale, providing the needed loan guarantee to ensure the transaction.
Romania has long suffered the environmental legacy of ill-managed oil drilling dating back to its communist era. The remediation plan and equipment will provide for the initial pick-up, cleaning and filtering of hazardous water and waste materials surrounding the Brazi refinery located in the Prahova County of Southern Romania. Other similarly contaminated areas within the country will need remediation as a condition of Romania’s 2007 induction into the European Union.
"This transaction is the perfect illustration of how U.S. companies can successfully access foreign markets," said Joseph Barnett, chief executive officer of BTFG. "This deal will mean more U.S. jobs while helping Romania solve a critical environmental challenge. It’s a win-win for all parties and demonstrates the powerful role complex international financing can play in making things happen and getting things done."
Recon Environmental SRL, a newly formed Romanian company that is a subsidiary the Houston-based Remedial Construction Services, LP, purchased this equipment to be provided to a consortium that won the public-bid contract to do the remediation work. Recon Environmental SRL was unable to secure financing from either local Romanian sources or from U.S.-based lenders without the involvement of the EX-IM bank and BTFG. Many US lenders resist deals when the collateral is located in a developing nation without a long history of democracy or rule-of-law.
“The EX-IM Bank is proud to provide the critical link in this exceptionally important project,” said EX-IM Bank Chair and President Fred P. Hochberg.
The project procures $7.5 million in specialty equipment from three U.S.-based suppliers. Missouri-based Tarmac International will provide equipment and setup for a Thermal Desorption Plant, which removes hydrocarbon from contaminated soil through direct-fired rotary dryer. Illinois-based, Centrifugal Services Inc. will provide waste solids management centrifuge to separate oil waste and water. Wisconsin-based, Centrisys Corporation will provide two skid-mounted centrifuge units.