Energy and Mining
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is weighing raising the financing framework it signed with Argentina in September from US$7 billion to US$10 billion.
That figure comes on top of the US$20 billion that the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is analyzing for projects in the country. This was described by Alejandro Díaz, CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Argentina (AmCham), to a group of journalists. According to Díaz, these are independent funds: combined, they would reach US$30 billion.
The message came during the meeting that the chamber’s member companies held with Christopher Landau, the number two at the State Department, during his visit to Buenos Aires last week. According to Díaz, Ambassador Peter Lamelas had already said that the EXIM amount was under review and would likely rise to US$10 billion, and at the meeting with Landau the companies received confirmation that the figure is heading in that direction.
Díaz noted that the increase requires approval from the bank’s board. None of the amounts involve approved disbursements: they are ceilings for possible operations, and each loan goes through its own evaluation.
EXIM has already offered US$6 billion to Argentina LNG
The current framework, called U.S.-Argentina Build the Future, was signed on September 23 in New York, the same day both governments launched the Andes-Atlantic Corridor. It aims to mobilize up to US$7 billion through 2027 in critical minerals, energy security and power grids, digital connectivity and advanced technologies.
Of that total, US$6 billion corresponds to the non-binding indicative term sheet the bank issued for Argentina LNG, the project of YPF, Eni and XRG, which will require investments of US$51 billion. The loan is tied to the purchase of U.S. goods and services for the infrastructure and production stages, and its final version requires approval from the bank’s board. Díaz said the idea is to allocate the remaining US$1 billion to infrastructure works along the corridor, especially to move minerals at a lower cost than truck transport.
The review of the ceiling has a technical explanation. Díaz endorsed a journalist’s reading: the US$7 billion reflected the limit EXIM sets for Argentina based on the category in which it places the country, so any additional financing has to go outside that line. Raising the ceiling to US$10 billion would open room for new operations beyond the LNG project.
The bank operates under its own rules. According to its critical minerals program, it offers direct loans and guarantees on commercial bank loans with repayment terms of up to 18 years after construction. It finances U.S. content up to 85% of the export contract and local costs up to 40% to 50% of that contract’s value. And its rules establish that EXIM financing must complement private capital, not compete with it.
Before any expansion, the bank needs the U.S. Congress. Its charter expires on December 31, and the bill by Senators Kevin Cramer and Mark Warner, which extends it for ten years, has been sitting in the Senate Banking Committee since February. The precedent weighs: in 2015 the charter lapsed for five months, and from July of that year until May 2019 the board lacked a quorum. During that period, the bank could only approve long-term loans of up to US$10 million.
Díaz estimated that the outcome of the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3, will not determine the renewal, since previous extensions were passed under governments of both parties, although he anticipated the process could be delayed. He also ruled out that Washington would let a tool it is actively developing fall by the wayside. The Argentina LNG consortium plans to sign its final investment decision on November 26.
The US$30 billion comes from two separate pockets
Asked whether the DFC’s US$20 billion included EXIM funds, Díaz replied: “To me, they are separate.” He added that the DFC’s ceiling for Argentina is “across the board,” meaning it adds up all of the agency’s instruments.
Under that reading, the DFC alone matches the figure the ambassador announced on October 20 at AOG Patagonia, in Neuquén: US$20 billion in investment and financing before the end of 2027, which Lamelas presented as a package from EXIM, the DFC, the State Department and other agencies. For Díaz, the DFC would reach that amount on its own and EXIM would add another US$10 billion.
Lamelas also tied the time horizon to Argentina’s presidential elections and said Washington is ready to keep financing beyond 2027 “if Argentina keeps moving forward and never backward.” Díaz said that, with the current government or one with similar characteristics, the financial relationship will not change much during the Trump administration. Back in Jujuy, Katrien Hinderdael, of the State Department, had warned that Washington is willing to finance mining and energy above the EXIM limit.
The DFC is studying 25 projects and requires private partners
“I know there are 25 projects the DFC is studying today,” said Díaz, who declined to identify the companies. He said the information reached him informally and compared it with the pipeline of the Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI), which already totals some 70 submitted projects.
In December 2025, the law that reauthorized the DFC through 2031 raised its exposure cap from US$60 billion to US$205 billion. Díaz did the math: US$20 billion for Argentina is equivalent to about 10% of the agency’s lending capacity, in a country to which the DFC allocated nothing three years ago, he recalled. The figure covers all its instruments. “When they talk about 20,000, those aren’t disbursements of 20,000. The portfolio is much broader. They provide insurance, they provide guarantees, they provide direct disbursements,” he explained. The corporation already has a track record in Vaca Muerta: its portfolio includes a US$300 million, ten-year loan to Vista Energy, approved in 2019 for Bajada del Palo Oeste.
Like EXIM, the DFC works with other lenders. “You won’t find a project in which the DFC finances 100%. Never,” Díaz said, citing as an example a scheme in which the agency contributes up to 30% and the developer secures the rest from commercial banks, multilaterals or other investors. Regarding China, he said the allocation criteria require that beneficiary companies not be controlled or dominated by sovereign states, without an explicit exclusion of suppliers from that country.