Egypt targets increasing refineries production by 5 million tons in 2019, sources at the Egyptian Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) told Amwal Al Ghad.

The planned increase comes to cover growing fuel demands in the light of industrial and electricity recent projects that depend on fuel, in addition to the growing market demand of benzene, diesel and butane.

Current production of refineries is almost 38 million tons per year, which covers between 50% and 70% of the local market’s demands of different fuels. Egypt is conducting several expansion projects in its refineries, for which the investments will exceed $8 billion.

Egypt pays around $450 million per month for fuel imports in order to cover local demand, an official source at EGPC previously told Amwal Al Ghad.