Saudi Aramco talks about new projects with Egypt

CAIRO – 11 September 2017: Saudi Aramco Products Trading Company is considering investing in a number of petroleum sector projects in Egypt, Company Executive Chairman Ibrahim Al-Buainain said Monday.

Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla met Al-Buainain, who is visiting Egypt to learn about the petroleum sectors’ projects that are under development, especially in the fields of infrastructure, pipelines, ports, warehouses and refineries, a statement from the Petroleum Ministry said.

The investment projects include increasing pumping Saudi oil through the Arab Petroleum Pipelines Company (SUMED) and converting Sidi Kerir terminal into a key center for marketing Aramco crude products and export it to Europe.

Aramco is also targeting exploiting excessive capacity at Egyptian refineries to refine Saudi crude, using storage capacity in Egypt to restore Saudi oil and distributing Aramco’s butane gas and petroleum products.

During the meeting, Molla stated that Egypt is keen on strengthening its ties with Aramco, to benefit from the current investment projects in the petroleum sector.

In April 2016, Saudi Arabia agreed to provide Egypt with 700,000 tons of petroleum products monthly for five years, which will be paid by Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) to Saudi Aramco and eventually be returned by Egypt in installments.

The shipments were halted for few months in October until the Kingdom announced in March of this year that the shipments will resume.