As part of the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources’ plan to increase production and attain self-sufficiency in petroleum products, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt inaugurated the Egyptian Refinery in the Mostrod region.

The inauguration took place on Sunday, 27^th September 2020. Speaking at the ceremony was the Petroleum Minister, Tarek El-Molla. He said the project will play a vital role in the development of the country’s infrastructure in oil refining and processing; adding that the refinery is one of the most important refining projects in Egypt and Africa.

The project is said to cost about $3.4 billion and produces about 4.7 million tons of several petroleum products annually. The refinery will increase diesel production by 30% and increase gasoline production by 15%.

Molla also reviewed the refineries in Egypt in 2013-2014 and noted they provided 13.5 million tons of products while annual consumption was about 21 million tons. He said it is one of the reasons why there is a need to increase local production, and according to him, there is a laid down strategy to modernise the refineries, to increase their refining capacities and to develop infrastructure.

The Minister said the modernisation of the refining sector started in 2018 and is intended to improve the local capacity to meet global standards and follow the global trends toward clean energy. It is intended for Egypt to become a regional hub for oil and gas trade.

He also reviewed three new projects that are under implementation that worth a combined $7.5 billion (LE91 billion). They are the gasoline and diesel production complexes in Assiut Governorate and the Midor refinery expansions, which together adds 9.4 million tons of petroleum products annually. He also said that a similar development is ongoing regarding the infrastructure for transporting, storing, shipping and trading petroleum products.

According to him, since 2016, the Ministry has been working to achieving self-sufficiency of gasoline and diesel by 2023. He said the geographic region of Mostrod now includes two refining complexes, the Cairo Refinery and the Egyptian Refinery. The region also provides 22% of the refining capacity in Egypt and has the main distribution companies.

He noted that a lot of factors will contribute to achieving self-sufficiency from now till 2023. Some of the factors are the operation of the new refineries, raising the efficiency of current refineries, rationalizing consumption, expanding the national project to convert cars to work with natural gas, improving the transportation network and roads that will contribute to saving consumption, and correcting the pricing structure.