Egypt inks contract to establish largest petrochemicals complex in ME

CAIRO – 29 June 2018: Newly appointed Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly will attend on Saturday the signing ceremony of a contract to establish of the largest petrochemical complex in the Middle East.

The Head of the Suez Canal Authority and SCZone Mohab Mamish will sign the contract with Carbon Holdings CEO Basil el Baz, according to a statement issued from the Egyptian Cabinet on Friday.

The petrochemical complex will be built at a cost of $10.9 billion in investments in the economic zone at the Suez Canal, the statement said.

This 11-factory complex project is set to be located on an area of 5 million square meters and provides 48,000 jobs to Egyptian youth, the statement added.


“The project is funded by international institutions to comply with the petrochemicals strategy and represents an added value to the Egyptian industrial sector,” the statement read.

It is scheduled to be finalized within 41 months, the least possible timetable for the implementation.

Early 2018, the government announcedthat it will support state-owned companies working in the refining and petrochemicals sector to boost their production.


During a meeting with the Alexandria Petroleum Company, Assiut Oil Refining Company (ASORC) and Egyptian Petrochemicals Company, heads of the companies presented their plans of production for fiscal year 2018/19.


Chairman of Alexandria Petroleum Company Medhat Bahgat said they plan to produce 99,000 tons of butane gas, 1.3 million tons of naphtha, 1.2 million tons of diesel, 1.4 million tons of fuel oil and 19,000 tons of asphalt.


The Alexandria-based company is planning two new projects to expand production and develop the facility.


As for ASORC, chairman of the company Nagy Kassab said they plan to refine one million ton of crude oil to produce 36,000 tons of butane, 520,000 tons of naphtha, one million ton of diesel, 2.3 million tons of fuel oil and 25,000 tons of jet fuel.


Chairman of Egyptian Petrochemicals Company plans to produce 90,000 tons of Polyvinyl chloride, 65,000 tons of sodium hydroxide and 15,000 tons of hydrochloric acid.


Egypt’s Petroleum Ministry aims to increase its annual production of gasoline, diesel, butane gas and jet fuel by 11.6 million tons in the next four years, at an investment of $8.3 billion, boosting total production to around 28.5 million tons, up from the current 16.9 million tons.


This comes as part of the ministry’s plan to expand and develop refineries to boost domestic production of petroleum products, with the aim of filling the gap between production and consumption.


Under the plan, the ministry targets producing 3.113 million tons of gasoline, 6.603 million tons of diesel, 481,000 tons of butane gas and some 1.438 million tons of jet fuel.

Developing the petrochemical industry will result in an improvement in plastics industry, fibers industry and other related industries.


By 2020, Egypt plans to produce more than three million tons of chemical products, under a 20-year national plan, which involves a range of products from ethylene and polyethylene to olefins and aromatics.