Egypt Planning to Set Up $9 Billion Refining and Petrochemical Project

As part of its strategy, the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has announced that work was underway currently for new refining and petrochemical projects in Egypt worth up to $9 billion.

The Ministry also said that new refining investment projects are currently being accelerated and are worth about $7.5 billion in total.

Several projects are in the pipeline including the Midor refinery expansion project in Alexandria, in the north-east of Egypt. Noting that the first and second phases of the expansion project have concluded and are currently operating on a trial basis. In addition to the diesel production complex at the ANOPEC company is Asyut, the Ministry said in a statement.

Also in the pipeline are the expansion project of the Sue oil manufacturing company, the Nasr Petroleum Company, and the air distillation facility at the Asyut oil refinery. New petrochemical projects are underway, worth a total of $1.4 billion.

Additional projects include a medium-density wood panels production facility in Idku, in Beheira Governorate. As well as two complexes to produce soda ash “sodium carbonate” and silicon and their derivatives in El Alamein, and methanol derivatives and bioethanol projects in Damietta.

At present, the government is operating eight new petroleum refining and procession projects, in addition to expansions, totalling more than $5 million. The government has launched a strategy in 2016 to develop the oil industry and reduce the importation of vital commodities and goods.

The strategy has been a success as the domestic production of petrochemical material doubled, up to more than 4.3 million tons per annum annual by the end of the fiscal year 2021/2022, from 2.1 million tons in 2015-16.

Oil and Gas Production

According to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, the total production of all petroleum products in Egypt reached 79.50 million tonnes at the end of 2022.

Egypt has the sixth-largest proved oil reserves in Africa and over half of them are offshore reserves. Although Egypt is not a member of OPEC, it is a member of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The country is also the second-largest producer of natural gas in the continent following Algeria and the fourth-largest holder of natural gas reserves. As of 2021, Egypt held 63 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves and approximately 3.3 billion barrels of crude oil.

During 2022, a total of 27.80 million tonnes of crude oil and condensates was produced, besides around 50.60 million tonnes of natural gas, and 1.1 million tonnes of butane, aside from the butane produced from refineries.

Likewise, even the consumption of petroleum products increased by 6.20% on an annual basis to 81 million tonnes during the year. Egypt’s exports of natural gas amounted to 8 billion in 2022, compared with 7 million tonnes in the previous year.

The bulk of Egypt’s petroleum comes from the Morgan, Ramadan, and July fields (both onshore and offshore) in the Gulf of Suez, which are operated by the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (commonly known as Gupco), and from the Abū Rudays area of the Sinai on the Gulf of Suez.