Aminex: Tunisia El Biban Oil Project (joint project w/ Aminex: Russia 7624) Summary Of Project Information (SPI)       Project Name    Russia/Tunisia-Aminex              Region    Europe/North Africa        Sector       Project No007610   Projected Board DateSeptember 26, 1996   Company NameAminex plc   Technical Partner and/or Major Shareholders    	Aminex is a public traded company on the London Stock Exchange with over 7,000 shareholders. Its largest shareholder, currently with 22%, is Zarubezhneft, an arm of the Russian Ministry of Fuel and Energy.    Project Cost Including proposed IFC investment    	Project cost: US$95 million. IFC equity: up to US$6.1 million for 15% of the Company; IFC loan: up to US$17 million.    Location of project and Description of site    	The Kirtayel project is located about 1,300 kms northeast of Moscow in the Komi republic of Russia. The El Biban field is located about 18 kms offshore the port of Zarzis in the Gulf of Gabes, Tunisia.    Description of Company and Purpose of Project    	The Russian project involves the recovery of crude oil from the Kirtayel oil field in the Komi Republic for export to Western Europe. The El Biban project offshore Tunisia involves the export of crude oil to Mediterranean refineries and the sale of natural gas domestically. IFCs main role is to assist a small, publicly traded, widely held company, to complete the financing plan for its investment program in a sector which has a significant development impact by earning foreign exchange, providing employment, and by transferring technology and management skills to local partners.    Environmental Category and Issues    	This is a category B project according to IFCs environmental review procedure.  The Tunisia project involves the re-entry of an existing offshore well. Processing and storage will take place at an existing oil terminal near Zarzis.  A new 18 km pipeline will be constructed and it has been aligned so as to avoid sensitive marine habitats.  The Russia project involves the recovery of oil in the existing onshore Kirtayel field.  The oil evacuation pipeline is already in place.  Both projects will result in significant reductions in the volumes of produced gas currently being flared; non-toxic water-based drill muds will be used; produced waters will be treated in accordance with accepted international standards; and state-of-the art oil spill contingency plans have been developed for both projects.  Details of these and other environmental mitigation measures are described in the Environmental Review Summary (ERS) which was prepared for this project and placed in the World Banks Public Information Center (PIC) on August 9, 1996. Based on its review of available information regarding potential environmental impacts and proposed mitigation measures, IFC concludes that Aminexs proposed projects will meet World Bank environmental and occupational health and safety policies and guidelines and host country requirements    The  is  from the Public Information Center.         Date SPI sent to PIC     August 16, 1996      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).