Four global power firms have been selected by Egypt’s Anchorage Investments to compete to be the main contractor for Ain Sokhna project.
They include Hyundai, Samsung, Technip Energies and Tecnicas Reunidas.
The project Ain Sokhna project is a $2 billion petrochemicals complex in the Suez Canal Economic Zone on the Red Sea.
The project aims to contribute to Egypt’s gross domestic project and increase its chemical exports and foreign direct investments.
Anchorage Investments, which develops and invests in industrial projects within the downstream oil and gas and mining-driven manufacturing sectors, had issued a tender for the Anchor Benitoite project in Ain Sokhna in March.
“The international companies that qualified for the second phase are world-class contractors who have proven track records and global experience,” said Ahmed Moharram, founder and managing director of Anchorage Investments.
“Our selection reflects how Anchorage Investments is keen to make the Anchor Benitoite project a lighthouse project that meets international standards and delivers for investors who are looking to strengthen their presence in Egypt.”
The project is scheduled to be completed within three years after the front-end engineering and design phase, Anchorage Investments said in a statement.
Petrochemicals are derived from crude oil processed in a refinery. The derivatives are used to produce industrial chemicals, plastic products and synthetic rubber.
Egypt’s exports of petrochemicals and fertilisers rose 45% last year, compared to 2020, to about $6.7billion, according to minister of petroleum and mineral resources, Mr. Tarek El Molla.
The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation said in a report in June that Mena region has shown a strong appetite for directing more funds to petrochemicals.
For Egypt, the focus is “import substitution and value chain integration and monetisation”, such as producing materials that feed into other sectors like industry and agriculture and even aid in the green energy transition such as solar energy components, the Mena Energy Investment Outlook 2022-2026 report found.
Petrochemical complexes make up four of Egypt’s top 10 energy projects by value. These are an $8.5 billion El Alamein petrochemical complex, a $7.5 billion petrochemical complex in Suez, a $4.29 billion Suez Oil refining and petrochemical complex and a $3.71 billion crude oil refining and petrochemical complex in Ain Sokhna, according to Apicorp.
The Anchor Benitoite project encompasses a number of production units producing a total of 1.75 million tonnes per year of petrochemical products and intermediates.
Meanwhile, the SCZone, which covers a 460-kilometre area, has so far signed nine memorandums of understanding with several global partners for the production of green fuel.
The economic zone said in a statement earlier this week that it expects to sign more MoUs “within the next few days to reach the largest possible number of final contracts by the Cop27 summit” that will be held at Red Sea resort Sharm El Sheikh in November.
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