Egypt Oil & Gas learned that the Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM) in the process of setting up several new projects, one of which is to convert natural gas to olefins, and polyolefins GTP,

The project aims to produce olefins (ethylene and propylene) and converted into polyolefins and polyethylene through the use of natural gas as feedstock. The production capacity in 1m tons per annum of polyolefins, and 600,000 tons per year of polypropylene, and 400,000 tons per year of polyethylene.

It is forecast that the total cost of the project will be $4b, with a 40% national share in the investments with the remaining 60% going to Arab and foreign partners. The project is expected to be set up either in the special economic zone in Ain Sukhna or industrial area in East Port Said.

ECHEM is also working on a new ethylene producing plant, utilizing polyethylene glycol to convert it to exploit the planned ethane gas production of the United Gas Derivatives Company (UGDC).

The project’s production capacity is 300,000 tons per year of ethylene that is converted to 500, 000 tons of ethylene glycol per year.

The total cost of the project is foretasted at $2b, with a 20% national share in investment, leaving foreign and Arab investment at 80%. It was agreed that funding will come from the partners and in the form of bank loans. The project is expected to begin in 2016.

The purpose of the project is to cover the needs of the domestic market for mono ethylene glycol, provide the required feedstock needs of a number of national projects, instead of relying on imports, and exporting the surplus; ethylene glycol is used as feedstock for the polyester project.