BB Energy (Gulf) DMCC, domiciled in the United Arab Emirates, is part of the BB Energy Group of companies (the “Group). The Group is mainly active in the oil trading business for crude oil, refined petroleum products and bitumen. It is ultimately controlled by members of the Bassatne family. Established in 1969, BB Energy Group is well represented through trading and services companies in London, Singapore, Dubai, Beirut and Athens with over 200 employees. The Group trades around 7-10 million metric tons of crude oil and petroleum products annually.

The facility size will be up to $500 million two year arrangement to finance the importation of refined energy products into Mauritania.  Out of the total  $500 million facility, IFC and Société Générale are each considering an exposure of up to $150 million for their respective accounts and both institutions together plan to mobilize up to $200 million from commercial banks and DFIs.

150.0 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan	150.0
Equity

* These investment figures are indicative

Nouakchott and Nouadhibou, Mauritania

The proposed investment will have significant development impacts as follows:

(a) Maintain the availability of trade finance for trade businesses in Mauritania. The Project is expected to finance in excess of US$1.5 billion of energy commodity trade flows to Mauritania over two years by providing much needed liquidity. This will protect an IDA economy against the risk of energy shortages, the risk of being cut off from suppliers as commercial banks have reduced their emerging market exposure.

(b) Ensuring availability of energy products in the local economy, critical for consumption, power and other energy needs. A steady supply of critically needed fuel through regular channels will keep prices in check, remove parallel market incentives, and improve affordability particularly for the vulnerable poor and is necessary to sustain economic activities.

(c) SME Development - By supporting the private sector companies in the country''s downstream oil sector, the project will provide business opportunities to local private companies involved in transportation, distribution, and retail of refined oil products

(a) With the help of IFC, Mauritania can access commercial and official sources of funding to finance the import of refined energy products essential for the working of its economy, covering the country''s entire energy needs over the next two years. Due to the continuous constraints on banks traditionally active in the trade finance space, including European banks, and the increased cost of US funding, the proposed facility will allow continued importation of energy products into Mauritania. Without this facility, all sectors and economic agents, such as power generation, transportation, agriculture, industrial and commercial entities and households will be negatively impacted, hurting economic activity. There is also a risk that the current successful tendering and private sector involvement would stop, forcing the State to get again involved in the trade of fuel products, use scarce foreign exchange reserves for energy rather than food imports, and potentially resorting to barter trade if state financing were not available. This will be a setback to Mauritania''s reform program of private sector development and devolving the importation and marketing of energy to private companies.

(b) IFC''s presence enables the mobilization of financial resources from other development financial institutions and also commercial lenders. In the current market environment, Mauritanian risk is hard to finance, notwithstanding the security structure from pledged oil and confirmed L/Cs from international banks, and currently importers have difficulty accessing discounting facility of commercial banks, an arrangement needed to finance their trading operations.

BB Energy’s main business is refined energy products trading. BB Energy will mainly purchase liquid fuel from international spot markets for this project. Both fuel storage terminals are located at port industrial areas and built a few kilometers from the shore. The tank farms have sufficient secondary containment systems. The fuel tanks are installed with floating roofs to prevent vapor emissions. Both terminals have established EHS procedures for operations. The potential adverse E&S impacts of this project are therefore few in number and limited to project sites, and may be readily mitigated. This is therefore an E&S Category B project in accordance with IFC’s Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability.

Please refer to the related Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) document for this project.

Please refer to the Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) tab in the related Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) document for this project.