The Assiut National Oil Processing Company (ANOPC) plans to establish  a diesel production complex project – hydrogen cracking of mazut – at an investment cost of $1.9 billion, Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

The diesel complex aims to use the low-economic petroleum products (mazut) to maximize the productivity of the high-value economic distillates, such as diesel, butane, and naphtha.

The complex will use around 2.5 million tons of mazut annually to produce around 1.6 million tons of diesel per year, 402,000 tons of naphtha, and 100,000 tons of butane. In addition, the project will produce amounts of coal and sulfur.

The project was discussed during the higher committee meeting for refining projects at the ANOPC’s headquarter to follow up on ongoing projects.

During the meeting, Minister of Petroleum El Molla confirmed that the project has to be ended and linked to the production map according to its time-frame to be able to meet local demand and reduce imports.