CAIRO, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Wealth Tarek al-Mulla said on Monday that the Egyptian government is studying the establishment of a refinery and petrochemicals complex with initial investment cost estimates of 8.5 billion U.S. dollars.
The minister's remarks came during his presidency of the General Assembly meeting of the Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM) to approve its draft budget for the fiscal year 2019/2020, according to a press release by the ministry of petroleum.
The minister explained that the project in the New Alamein district, north of the capital Cairo, is currently under study, according to the statement.
He added that the oil sector is currently working on carrying out an integrated plan for the development of the petrochemicals industry and creating an appropriate atmosphere for luring more investments to this vital sector.
Meanwhile, Chairman of ECHEM Saad Helal said the New Alamein Complex project aims at producing around 1.5 million tons of specialized petrochemicals and around 1.9 million tons of petrochemical products such as butane gas, Kerosene, Mazot and diesel, according o official MENA news agency.
Helal added that other expansion projects include Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company (Sedpec) with total investments that hit 1.25 billion U.S. dollars and a production capacity of 450,000 tons annually.
Other planned projects include Suez Company, the development of the naval quay, facilitation of shipping and storage of Mopco Company with investments of 190 million U.S. dollars, Helal pointed out.
He also asserted that ECHEM was committed to applying industrial security standards and environment protection plans along with maintaining its strategy to develop the petrochemicals sector and raise its productivity rates.
Once an energy exporter, Egypt has turned into a net importer in recent years, squeezed by declining production and increasing consumption.
However, Egypt is back on track to be an exporter soon after a big number of recent discoveries across the country that attracted several international firms for oil exploration over the past years.
The most populous Arab country has rapidly increased its production of natural gas in hope to become a hub for exporting to Europe after making a series of big discoveries in recent years, including the largest gas field in the Mediterranean, Zohar.
Cyprus and Egypt will construct a pipeline connecting Cyprus's Aphrodite gas field to Egypt's liquefied natural gas facilities.
Egyptian gas was expected to reach Jordan this month, according to Jordan's energy minister.
