Energy management and sustainability should be present in every feature of the downstream sector in order to have a healthy economy and environmental-friendly downstream business. The Egyptian oil and gas sector has already placed decarbonization at the heart of its operations, including the downstream operation. This is reflected in refineries, transportation, and warehouses.

Enhancing Refineries and Decarbonizing Them

Egypt has been developing its refineries in the past few years. During the period from Fiscal Year (FY) 2014/15 until December 2022, the investments of the new refining projects that have been implemented, a total of 8 projects, were equivalent to EGP 87 billion.

In July 2023, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoPMR) announced implementing and accelerating new refining projects with investments of about $7.5 billion, and their operation will be completed successively. These projects include the expansion project of the Midor refinery in Alexandria. Its first and second phases have been completed and started operating experimentally. Moreover, they include the diesel production complex at ANOPC in Assiut and the expansions of the Suez Oil Processing Company (SOPC), represented by the coking and diesel production complex. This is in addition to the condensate distillation project at the Nasr Petroleum Company in Suez; and the air distillation project at the Assiut oil refinery.

Additionally, the country runs five energy audits across refineries, petrochemicals, and upstream companies, with the aim to decrease energy consumption and reduce emissions by 15%.

Improving the Petrochemical Industry

MoPMR Modernization program is aimed at maximizing the added value of natural resources and petrochemical products by developing the petrochemical industry.  The petrochemical sector has two implemented projects with investments of $4 billion. The sector has also three projects under construction with $7.99 billion in investments.

The projects that were implemented to improve the petrochemical sector are the MOPCO expansion project, with $2 billion in investments and an annual production capacity of 1.4 million tons of Uria. The project provided 5,000 job opportunities. The other project is Ethydco’s complex, with $2 billion investments and an annual production capacity of 460,000 tons of ethylene, 400,000 tons of polyethylene, and 26,000 tons of butadiene. The project provided 10,000 job opportunities. The local production of petrochemicals was over 4.3 million tons annually by the end of FY 2021/22, compared to 2.1 million tons in FY 2015/16.

Distribution & Retail

Egypt has been keen to enhance the petroleum transportation system and to monitor it to prevent products from getting into the black market. “In order to increase the observation and monitoring level of the petroleum products, the petroleum sector implemented the SCADA system, which collects data from smart card system, ATG system, and GPS to link and integrate between their functions to enable a complete control,” MoPMR wrote on their website.

Moreover, to facilitate oil and gas trade and work on its strategy to become a regional energy hub, Egypt developed storage and transportation capacities. The ports’ capacity has grown by 70% to 76 million tons per year in September 2022, compared to 45 million tons per annum in FY 2014/15. Moreover, the petroleum products storage capacity increased by 130% to 2.5 billion tons in September 2022, compared to 1.1 billion tons in FY 2014/15.

As Egypt develops the downstream sector, the country is creating a more sustainable sector. Moreover, the MoPMR is striving to achieve its regional strategies and enhance its oil and gas business.