Suez Petroleum Services Company (SUPSC) has signed a memorandum with Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp) for funding a methanol derivatives project, Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

Apicorp will provide between $35 million and $40 million to finance the project, and comes in preparation for the final contract which will be signed in the upcoming period.

The agreement was signed by SUPSC’s head, Gawdat Al Sadeq, and Nicolas Thevenot, Executive Vice President (EVP) – Head Corporate Finance at Apicorp, in the presence of Minister of Petroleum Tarek El Molla.

The project will cost around $60 million in total, 40% of which will be funded by shareholders and 60% will be financed by external loan facilities, Al Sadeq said.

The methanol project will be established on 100 m2 land owned by ECHEM in Damietta port. It will produce 18,000 tons of urea-formaldehyde 85-concentrate (UFC), 34,000 tons of urea-formaldehyde 65-concentrate (UFC), 26,000 tons of sulphonated naphthalene formaldehyde, and 24,000 tons of caustic soda each year.