Egypt to Boost Petrochem Capacity with Terminal and $1 Billion Olefins Project

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources Incorporated; Houston, Texas) Egypt is moving up a gear in its push to develop its participation in the Middle East petrochemicals market. The latest projects to be announced are a bulk liquids terminal and a major new olefins project.

The new terminal will in Sokhna Port's free zone which is 40 kilometers south of Suez and 130 kilometers east of Cairo. The terminal, which is scheduled for operation in 2006, will cater primarily to Egypt's growing bunker fuel market and also support the importation of edible oils and petrochemicals. Egypt's current bunker fuel market is worth around two million metric tons a years compared to other major world ports that handle in excess of 10 million metric tons per annum.

The joint venture handling the project features ENOC (Emirates National Oil Company)(Dubai, UAE) through its wholly owned subsidiary Horizon Terminals Limited which with Vopak (AMSTERDAM:VOPA) (Rotterdam, Netherlands) has formed Vopak-Horizon Fujairah Limited (VHFL) that is partnering Egypt's Sokhna Bunkering Company (Sonker) (Cairo, Egypt). The project will be 60% owned by Sonker with 40% going to VHSL.

The new $1 billion olefins complex project, to be sited in Egypt, was on the front burner in talks between Kuwait and Egypt, which covered the hydrocarbon fuel and resource issues implicit in such a gas export project. Officials from the Egyptian government and Kuwait’s ENOC have discussed a proposed project which would see Egyptian gas piped to Kuwait in exchange for crude oil that would be processed in Egyptian refineries. Talks between officials of the two countries, which began in mid-February will be continued.

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