Petroleum min. reviews pace of work in new oil projects

CAIRO - 9 July 2020: Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek el Molla on Thursday chaired a video-conference meeting of the supreme committee for oil projects to review the pace of work in a number of new projects on developing the control system of fuel distribution and the activities of the sectors of oil refining and petrochemicals.

The committee discussed the progress made in applying the Automatic Tank Gauging (ATG) system, which aims to tighten control over the trade of petroleum products and ensure the availability of fuel in all gas stations across the nation. 

The meeting took up the project of electronic boards that display gasoline and diesel prices for consumers at gas stations. 

Molla was also briefed on the progress made in the development of the carbonization complex at Suez Oil Processing Company (SOPC), as well as modernizing the production unit of butane, at a total cost of USD 1.1 billion.

The oil minister and the committee members followed up the pace of work in establishing the two oil refining and petrochemical complexes at the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) and New El Alamein City.

The two facilities are due to produce specialized petrochemical products and petroleum products that meet a part of the local market's needs and export the surplus, through benefiting from export facilitation offered by the Suez Canal and Al Hamra Petroleum Port.

They explored the pace of work in a project to produce medium density fiberboard (MDF) panels in Behira governorate, at a total cost of 217 million euro.

It is expected to produce annually 205,000 cubic meters of MDF panels through using 250,000 tons of rice straw. 

The committee reviewed the ongoing work to execute the Petrochemical Logistics Services (PLS) project in Al Max neighborhood in Alexandria.

The USD-500-million project is aimed at trading, storing and transporting petroleum products, natural gas and petrochemicals. (MENA)