Pecten Cameroon Itindi Summary Of Project Information (SPI)       Project Name    Cameroon-Pecten Itindi            Region    Sub-Saharan Africa        Sector       Project No007621   Projected Board DateFebruary 9, 1997   Company NamePecten Cameroon Company   Technical Partner and/or Major Shareholders    	Pecten is 80% owned by Pecten International Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell Oil Company.  The remaining 20% is owned by Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), the Cameroonian national oil company.    Project Cost Including proposed IFC investment    	The additional financing requirement will be US$115 million. It is proposed that IFC will provide some US$95 million, US$20 million for its own account and US$75 million for the account of participants.    Location of project and Description of site    	The project is located in seven oil fields in the Rio del Rey Basin, offshore Cameroon.    Description of Company and Purpose of Project    	Pecten and Elf Serepca (which is owned 20% by SNH and 80% by Elf Aquitaine) are joint operators in a number of concessions which account for over 95% of Cameroon''s oil production.  The purpose of the Project is to improve recovery from mature fields by slowing down the production decline and thereby extending their useful economic life.  In 1990, Pecten was able to arrange financing on the international markets, independently of IFC.  Since then however, the international banking community has made it clear that it would no longer finance further development in Cameroon without IFCs participation to mitigate perceived political risks.  This continues to be the case today.  At the same time, the proposed financing is vital to ensure the optimal exploitation of the Republics most important oilfields.          In order to avoid transfer pricing difficulties and because the Republic prefers not to pay its share of development expenses up-front, Pecten seeks financing for development expenditure through external debt.  The Republics share of debt service is then reimbursed out of its share of oil revenues.          IFC intends to raise up to about 80% of the additional debt financing from external sources.  With IFC as the catalyst, this Project will be able to mobilize significant funds in a country with a high level of perceived political risk.    	Cameroon is sub-Saharan Africas fifth largest oil producer and oil accounts for a large proportion of government revenue. The direct benefits of this Project to Cameroon are considerable as the Republic receives a large proportion of after tax operating income from production, as well as dividends. The project will therefore generate a significant amount of additional foreign exchange earnings for the country.  Oil remains of major importance to the economy and the full exploitation of the Republics reserves remains a major component of its continued economic development.          In order to address the decline in oil production which is expected as current reserves are fully exploited, the Republic has introduced measures to encourage private sector participation in the development of fields that are considered marginal.  Measures have also been instituted to incentivize private sector entities to explore for new sources of exploitable reserves.  Part of the development portion of the Project is directed at such marginal fields while the exploration portion will largely be directed at the so-called exploration incentive fields.  The Project will thus support these initiatives by assisting in the stabilization of the Republics overall oil production profile.    Environmental Category and Issues    	This is a category B Project according to IFC''s environmental review procedure.  Environmental issues of potential concern with this project include the discharge of drilling muds and cuttings, treatment and disposal of produced water and other liquid effluents, gas flaring and oil spill contingency plans and response capability.  Based on environmental monitoring reports and other information submitted by Pecten, IFC has concluded that the continued development of the fields is designed to meet World Bank environmental, health and safety policies and guidelines, and host country requirements.    The  is  from the Public Information Center.       Host country location of environmental documents    International Finance Corporation, Rue Flatters, B.P. 4616, Doula, Cameroon      Date SPI sent to PIC January 9, 1997   For Additional Information contact:  Corporate Relations Unit -   telephone: (202) 473-7711   facsimile: (202) 676-0365  Environmental documents for this project are available at http://www.ifc.org and from the World Bank InfoShop (http://www.worldbank.org/html/pic/aboutinfo.html).