Page 14 - DMEA Week 39

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Egypt kicks off $2.5bn

hydrocracker project

EGYPT EGYPT has kicked off the $2.5bn Mosto- Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla said on Sep-
rod hydrocracking project at the Assiut oil tember 28.
The complex will break refinery in central Egypt. A ceremony was “Work is being done to achieve self-suffi-
down fuel oil into more held at the construction site on September ciency in Egypt of gasoline and diesel by 2023,”
valueable products. 27 led by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah he said, estimating the country would import
El-Sisi. some 3.5mn tonnes (25.7mn barrels) of refined
The complex will break down fuel oil and fuels this year at a cost of $1.5bn. Egypt took
annually produce 4.7mn tonnes of petroleum 10mn tonnes of fuels from overseas in 2016, at
products, including high-octane gasoline and a cost of $4.5bn.
diesel compliant with Euro-5 standards, LPG, New refineries need to be built and existing
jet kerosene, naphtha and coke. It is operated by ones need to be made more efficient, the minis-
Assiut Oil Refining, a subsidiary of state-owned ter said at a Mostorod ceremony. Consumption
Egyptian General Petroleum. also needs to be rationalised, and more vehicles
International contractor TechnipFMC converted to run on natural gas, he said.
secured an engineering, procurement and con- Egyptian authorities have been trying to
struction (EPC) contract worth over $1bn to convince drivers to switch to gas for years, in
build the complex in July, covering its vacuum order to reduce costs and reduce pollution in
distillation diesel hydrocracking, delayed cok- major cities. The Egyptian government has
ing, distillate hydrotreating and hydrogen pro- said it wants to see as many as 1.3mn vehicles
duction units. converted to use gas, up from around 318,000
Egypt is a net importer of fuel as a result of currently. El-Sisi even announced in July that
years of declining production and rising con- licences would not be issued to new cars unless
sumption. It is investing in a host of new down- they run on gas.
stream projects to try to turn this trend around. Egypt wants to draw from its large offshore
Some of these schemes have been shelved or gas reserves. National gas production began ris-
cancelled since the coronavirus (COVID-19) ing again in 2017 after years of decline, thanks to
pandemic hit, however. the start-up of the Zohr project led by Eni. The
The country can become self-sufficient Italian major and its partners have since made a
in petroleum products by 2023, Egyptian number of other offshore discoveries. ™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 39 01•October•2020