EGYPT - Oriental Petrochemicals Co.

Formed in early 1996, OPC has Egypt's first PP plant in a new 10m sq metre free industrial zone developed by the private sector just south of Suez city. The plant went on stream in June 2001 at 180,000 t/y and was later expanded to 360,000 t/y. Textile magnate Mohammed Faris Khamis is the man behind OPC. The main OPC shareholders are Khamis' Oriental Weavers Group and Misr American Carpet Mills. Enppi holds 20%. Other partners include the Arab Int'l Investment Co., an Egypt-based entity owned largely by Libyan interests.

Oriental Weavers Group (OWG), Egypt's leading carpet producer headed by Khamis, has a polyester plant alongside the PP facility. The plant has a 450 t/d capacity producing partially oriented yarn, polyester staple fibre, filament and chips - mostly sold locally.

The Saudi Egyptian Petrochemical Co. (Sepco) has a 252,000 t/y polyester plant in Alexandria producing partially oriented yarn, textile chips (used for clothing, home textiles, carpets and various industrial applications), and staple fibres (to blend with cotton & wool), and polyester resin (PET - used for bottled water and soft drink or edible oil packaging) for the local market and export. It started up in 2003. The main partners in Sepco are the Jeddah-based business tycoon Ahmad Badeeb, who heads the Jehan Group, and Midroc which is part of the Saudi-based al-Amoudi Group.

The nitrogenous fertiliser industry in Egypt is the second biggest consumer of natural gas next to the power sector, with methane being its feedstock for of ammonia and urea. Egypt has been producing nitrogenous fertilisers for many years. Demand for fertilisers is to rise sharply in this decade and in the 2010s, because of huge new land reclamation projects for agriculture in the south, such as the massive Toshka programme of projects south-west of Aswan. Many agricultural projects will be launched in other parts of Egypt.

Egypt Basic Industries Corp. (EBIC) is having a 2,000 t/d anhydrous ammonia plant built at Ain Sukhna near Suez. EBIC shareholders include EGPC, Amiral Group, PSK Holdings (an Egyptian petrochemicals producer), and Orascom Construction Industries (OCI). A unit of OCI, Suez Industrial Development Co. (SIDC), will manage the plant. Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) of the US, also a shareholder in EBIC, has the EPC contract. OCI is the lead subcontractor. Egas will supply the plant with gas for 25 years. International trader Transammonia of New York is to buy all the output, to be exported through a new pipeline to Ain Sukhna port.

Misr Oil Processing Co. (Mopco) is having a complex built in Suez Uhde to produce 1,200 t/d of ammonia and 1,925 t/d of urea. Egas will supply the gas. EGPC is Mopco's main shareholder.

Egyptian Fertiliser Co. (EFC) was privatised in mid-2005. In May 2007 Citadel Capital, a private Egyptian equity firm with investments in energy and cement, it sold its shares in EFC to Abraj Capital of the UAE in a deal which valued EFC at US$1.4 bn. Citadel is having a major refinery built near Cairo (see down2EgyptRefJan7-08). EFC's plant at Ain Sukhna is being expanded from 1,200 t/d to 1,440 t/d of urea and from 1,950 t/d to 2,300 t/y of ammonia. Uhde has done the feasibility study for the ammonia unit and Stamicarbon has done the study for the urea unit.

Background: Egypt became self-sufficient in fertilisers in 1991. This followed completion of the Abu Qir complex, the biggest of four nitrogenous fertiliser production zones - the other three being at Suez, Talkha and Kima (near Aswan). The Abu Qir complex came into being thanks to the development of the Abu Qir gas field - a fourth Abu Qir unit started up in 2005 with a capacity of 800,000 t/y. The other three complexes were launched thanks to development of gas fields found after Abu Qir and Abu Madi.

Egypt's production capacity for fertilisers - with a 15.5% nitrogen content - in early 2006 was 7.6m t/y, raised in late 1998 from 6.3m t/y after the third ammonia/urea unit at Abu Qir Fertilisers & Chemical Industries Co. in the Alexandria region came on stream. In addition, Egypt is producing about 2.5m t/y of phosphoric fertilisers.

With demand rising 5-7% per annum since the early 1990s, it has been said that the local production capacity for fertilisers should exceed 22m t/y by 2017. Most new capacities will be for nitrogenous fertilisers and by 2017 Egypt's gas production should exceed 6,000 MCF/d (see detailed background in Vol. 54).