Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla laid the foundation stone for the expansion of the Al-Hamra Petroleum Port area.

The port expansions is cover an area of ​​120 acres with the aim of increasing the storage capacity of the port facilities by adding four storage tanks with a capacity of 630,000 barrels of crude each, to reach a storage capacity of 5.3 million barrels to facilitate the movement of trading and receiving crude oil in the port of Al-Hamra.

This is in addition to the 420-acre plot of land adjacent to the area of ​​the port of Al-Hamra, which will be used as an area for the circulation/distribution of petroleum products and a shipping station to serve the expansions of Al-Alamein area.

During his tour at the port, El Molla explained that the implementation of the port’s expansion plans aims to transform it into a strategic center on the Mediterranean coast for the circulation of crude and petroleum products. He also noted that the ministry’s work strategy works to maximize the benefit from the infrastructure of the petroleum sector and continuously raise its efficiency to play its vital role in Egypt’s national effort to transform into a regional energy storage and trading hub.

During his tour, the minister listened to an explanation from Ibrahim Masoud, President of the Western Sahara Petroleum Company, WEPCO, the operator of the port, about the new expansion project.

A storage and handling area for petroleum products and a terminal for shipping them will be established next to the port on an area of ​​420 acres to serve the new city of Alamein, Masoud said, adding that the two new expansion areas add an area for the port up to 240% of its current area.

The Minister also  inspected the current development and modernization projects in the port facilities, where he inspected the operations of the latest crude storage warehouse that entered service in the port recently, which is warehouse No. 7 with a capacity of 630,000 barrels. He also inspected warehouse No. 8 under construction by Petrojet as a general contractor in cooperation with Enppi, which is set to increase the storage capacity of crude in the port by half a million barrels to reach 2.6 million barrels of crude oil.