The Egyptian petroleum sector is currently implementing five major petrochemical projects worth $14 billion including expansion of Midor refinery in Alexandria, Red Sea petrochemical project in the economic zone in Suez Canal, Assiut National Oil Processing (ANOPC) diesel complex in Assiut, asphalt production unit in Suez and coking complex in Suez, a press release stated.

The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, said that these investments come as a part of the ministry’s integrated program for updating petrochemical and refinery system in Egypt to leverage the operational efficiency and adding new units for achieving petroleum products sustainability and reduce imports bill.

El Molla’s remarks came during a meeting to review the latest updates of these ongoing projects in attendance of senior officials of the petroleum sector.

He added that the petroleum sector has successfully and efficiently implemented several mega projects over the past few years, assuring the importance of applying health, safety and environment (HSE) measures during execution of these projects.

For his part, Midor’s Chairman, Gamal El-Kariesh, showcased the situation of his company’s refinery project that aims to increase refining capacity to 60,000 barrels per day (b/d) with investments worth $2.4 billion,  indicating that the first phase will be completed soon.

In addition, Red Sea National Company for Refining and Petrochemicals’ Chairman, Mohamed Abady, presented the preparation works for the company’s project which worth $7.4 billion and its implementation time plan.

As for ANOPC project, the Company’s Chairman, Mohamed Badr, showed the execution situation for the project that will produce 2.5 million tons of petroleum products annually with investments of $2.9 billion.

Moreover, the meeting reviewed the situation of the establishment of the asphalt production unit with a capacity of 1,200 tons per day and the coking complex, which will cost $64 million and $1.4 billion, respectively.