A US$ 7.5bn contract has been signed for the construction of the Tahrir Petrochemical Complex in the Ain Sokhna industrial zone, near the Gulf of Suez, Egypt.

The contract was signed between the Red Sea National Refining and Petrochemicals Company and General Authority For Suez Canal Economic Zone, the main developer of the Suez Canal Economic Zone in the presence of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Tarek Al Mulla, minister of petroleum and mineral resources.

Project overview

The project will be built on an area of 3.56 million square meters. It will include a 4 000 000 tonne per annum naphtha cracker plant, which will be the first of its kind in the country and the biggest in the entire world. It will also include related downstream facilities with the capacity to produce 1.4 million tonnes of ethylene and polyethylene per annum, 900,000tpa of propylene, 250,000tpa of butadiene, 350,000tpa of benzene, and 100,000tpa of hexene-1.

A single-train ammonium nitrate process plant with a capacity of 1,060tpd and a nitric acid unit will also be set up at the complex.

It features the construction of support utilities and offsite facilities such as a 3,800m³ph capacity seawater desalination system implementing GE’s patented ultrafiltration and reverses osmosis technology, a wastewater treatment plant, a 300MW combined cycle power plant, sea works, a tank farm, jetty works, pipelines, and auxiliary components.

The purpose of the project

This industrial complex is expected to achieve a high added value in this Industry, meeting local market needs for project products and downsizing the state imports of these products as well as creating export opportunities for productive materials, and resettling the industry.

Engineer Tarek Al-Mulla confirmed that the project is one of the Ministry of Oil and Mineral Wealth’s pillars to develop the refining and petrochemical industry in the North African country.