The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, announced that Egypt will achieve self-sufficiency of petroleum products especially octane by 2023, according to the official Facebook page of the ministry.

This came during the inauguration ceremony of octane production expansion projects in Alexandria National Refine and Petrochemical Company (ANRPC) in Alexandria, which was inaugurated by the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

El Molla added that these results are driven by several new refining projects including the project of ANRPC and the project of Egyptian Refining Company (ERC) which cut octane imports by 50% to 1.5 million tons comparing to the consumption of past four years which estimated at three million tons.

He stated that the average local consumption of octane reached seven million tons annually noting that Coronavirus pandemic reduced the consumption to 6.6 million tons. He added that the high-octane gasoline of 92 and 95 represent 55% of the consumed octane and is expected to jump to 60% at the end of 2020.

El Molla elaborated that the ministry is implementing package of projects during the upcoming three years with investments of $7.5 billion equals to EGP 120 billion to achieve the self- sufficiency of petroleum products during the fiscal year (FY) 2022/2023. These projects include Midor Refinery expansion, Assiut High-Octane Gasoline Complex in addition to consumption reduction programs and expansion in converting more cars to run on natural gas, he added.

Additionally, the Minister showcased the project of ANRPC, which cost EGP 3.5 billion and will add 700,000 tons of high-octane gasoline to reach 1.5 million per year.