The Ministry of Petroleum is currently implementing $8.031 billion worth of projects in the refineries across Egypt to increase its refining capacity and to achieve the best efficiency in the petroleum products productivity, Al-Borsa Newspaper reported.
Tarek El-Molla, the Minister of Petroleum, told Al-Borsanews that the ministry is currently developing several refineries to make Egypt a regional energy hub.
El-Molla added that the Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR) expansion project will increase the production capacity by a 60% with investments of around $2.3 billion.
The minister also said that a fuel and diesel production complex is being established in Assiut to convert 2.
5 million tons of oil into high quality petroleum products, in addition to utilizing the Red Sea National Company for Refining and Petrochemicals to benefit from the surplus and undeveloped capacities and convert 2.5 million tons a year into high quality products.
A 60/70 asphalt production plant is also being implemented at the company to manufacture petroleum with the aim of establishing a distillation unit with a capacity of 726,000 tons per year of mazut and about 396,000 tons per year of 60/70 asphalt to cover the needs of the local market with investments of about $ 79.4 million.
El-Molla pointed out to accomplishing a high-octane fuel production unit in Assiut Oil Refining Co. (ASORC) with the aim of producing 800 thousand tons per year of high octane gasoline to meet the needs of Upper Egypt’s petroleum products with investments of $450 million..
He also said that ASORC is being rejuvenated by building a new unit which will produce 1.5 million tons of butane a year to enlarge the Vapor Recovery Units (VRU) amounts to recover the medium distillate gases especially the diesel, butane and fuel to fulfill the local market’s needs.
The projects’ list also includes aromatics extraction unit using N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) by Alexandria Mineral Oils Co. to renew the oil complex and increase the production from 32 cubic meter per hour to 36 cubic meters per hour using almost 10-16 thousand oil tons a year by aromatics refinery with an investment of 21.48 million a year.
