US agency in largest loan to Africa

Equatorial Guinea will benefit from from a US $173 million loan for the construction and operation of a methanol plant in the West African country, the United States Information Service of the State Department reported on Thursday.

The loan, approved on Tuesday by the board of the Overseas Private Corporation (OPIC), is the largest this agency devoted to spurring U.S. exports to emerging markets has made to Africa. The board also approved up to US $200 million in political risk insurance for the project.

The project, which will cost a total of US $450 million, will generate 2,500 mt of fuel a day from natural gas. The factory will be on the island of Bioko - site of the capital - and will be managed by the Atlantic Methanol Production Company, USIS said. The facility is owned by several US companies and the government of Equatorial Guinea.

Commenting on the Bioko project, OPIC President and chief executive officer George Munoz said it would contribute “simultaneously to private sector development in Equatorial Guinea and the improvement of local air quality, by processing gas that would otherwise be flared”.

Equatorial Guinea held parliamentary elections on 28 May and were generally rated free and fair by foreign observers although boycotted by major opposition parties. USIS said, “Its political stability has been matched by an economic boom fueled by the discovery of large offshore pockets of oil and gas.”