CAIRO: Refinement and production projects of $6 billion are being implemented to provide the local market with the needed power supplies, Minister of Petroleum Sherif Ismail said in a Friday statement.
“The projects aim to reduce the amounts of the imported petroleum, diesel oil and butane gas and achieve the best economic use of the Egyptian refinement labs,” said the minister.
He presented the butane gas projects in process, pointing to two new projects to establish two Vapor Recovery Units (VRU,) in the framework of increasing local production of Butane gas.
“The production units of the two refinement labs in Assyut Oil Refinement Company and Suez Oil Processing Corporation are to be updated in the projects with $57.5 million investments
, which will produce around 170,000 tons of butane gas and 381,000 tons of naphtha yearly,” Ismail said.
The minister noted that two new units for naphtha reforming with continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR) are to be implemented to increase the production of benzene, promoting local sufficiency.
“The cost of the two projects is about $550 million to produce 1.1 million tons of benzene of high octane, around 24,000 tons of butane gas and 35,000 tons of hydrogen yearly,” he added.
Three mega projects of about $2.6 billion in refinement field will be executed in the near future, according to Ismail. .
The projects will include establishing a new complex for hydrocracking of Mazout by Assyut Oil Refiniment Company, a new oil complex by Suez Oil Processing Corporation and a production unit of Asphalt 60/70 by Amreya Petroleum Refinement Company, to cover the needs of Alexandria and the Nile Delta cities.