Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla has conducted an inspection tour of the projects to increase diesel production as well as the local industrialization capacities of petroleum components in Assiut.

The minister started the visit with the inauguration of Petrojet’s new central manufacturing workshops.

He elaborated that this project aims to increase the industrialization capacities to raise the rate of the local components in the new petroleum projects in Assiut. These components will be used in the new underway diesel complex in Assiut as well as the efficiency of Assiut Petroleum Refinery.

 For his part, Petrojet Chairman Waleed Lotfy presented the important features of the project which include three specialized shops for production and industrialization with a capacity of 1,800 tons per year, equipped with the latest tools and equipment.

Also, El Molla has opened the Petrojet workers camp, which was established within the framework of the strategy to support the human capacities which is the main pillar in the implementation of plans and projects.

Moreover, the minister inspected the ongoing works of implementing the Diesel and Petroleum Products Complex affiliated with Assiut National Oil Processing Company (ANOPC) which is the largest project being carried out in Upper Egypt. He added that the industrialization of the project’s components in local shops will contribute to raising local components to reach more than 50% after it increased to 40%-45%.

The new complex aimed at producing 2.5 million tons of petroleum products annually including European standards diesel with a capacity of 1.6 million tons to reduce its imports in addition to the production of butane and naphtha for octane production.

During the inspection tour, the minister listened to a presentation by ANOPC Chairman Mohamed Badr about the progress of the work in completing the four main units of the complex in addition to the complementary units such as industrial wastewater treatment units and others, which serve the project carried out by Enppi and Petrojet in cooperation with the Italian company Technip as the general contractor, with investment costs of $2.9 billion.

For his part, El Molla directed the continuation of full coordination between the companies executing the project and providing the needed requirements for the completion of the targeted works in accordance with the planned time programs with full commitment taking into account the application of health, safety, and environment (HSE) standards. The minister also inaugurated the administrative building for the employees of ANOPC.