Egypt’s state-run petroleum refinery MIDOR has signed two deals worth $1.4 billion with US-based engineering company UOP, the petroleum ministry said in a statement released Thursday.
The investment is part of a wider plan by the ministry to raise the domestic production of refined oil following an energy crunch that has lasted more than four years.
The engineering company will prepare designs for the expansion of the refinery, raising its capacity to 160,000 barrels per day from 100,000 barrels per day.
By the project completion, MIDOR’s annual production capacity will reach 245,000 tonnes of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), 2.3 million tonnes of Diesel and 1.3 million tonnes of high octane fuel.
The statement did not clarify the timeframe of the project.
Egypt has been suffering from an acute energy crunch as foreign oil companies suspend extraction works on the back of growing arrears, most of which have been repaid leaving $3.1 billion outstanding as of March.
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