Egypt Establishes Asphalt Unit for EGP 138M
The new asphalt unit, which is being established at the Suez Oil Processing Company (SOPC), costs EGP 138 million, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, told Amwal Al Ghad, adding that the unit aims to increase the company’s asphalt production during 2018.
SOPC will start executing the project phases during fiscal year 2017/2018. The project will have production capacity 400,000 tons of asphalt per year, which will cover a huge part of the local market’s demands, El Molla stated.
The project is among a number of schemes processed by SOPC, Assiut Oil Refining Company (ASORC), and Petroleum Pipeline Company (PPC) within 2017/2018 in order to increase petroleum derivatives production and the quality of services related to petroleum products provided to citizens, El Molla pointed out.
PPC is also executing a project to increase the sufficiency of crude oil transmission pipelines in 2017/2018 to facilitate delivering petroleum products to Egypt’s governorates.
Meanwhile, the country is planning to increase the production capacity of refineries. As El Molla previously stated, Egypt has a national plan to develop refineries with investments worth $8 billion to cover Egyptian demands of petroleum products and to be able to re-export oil after refining.
Petrojet, Samsung Sign New Contract
Petrojet signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with international Samsung to cooperate in executing integrated projects. The two companies signed the MoU during Samsung’s delegation visit to Petrojet, reported Amwal Al Ghad.
The two firms had a meeting on July 17, during which Petrojet made a brief presentation of its potential and activities as well as its experience inside and outside of Egypt. The Egyptian Company further explained its strategic relations with Samsung in the projects established in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Algeria. The meeting had a discussion of the possible future joint projects and how to develop the cooperation between the two firms.
Samsung’s delegation included the company’s Chairperson, Offers Administrator, Director of Implementation Offers, and Execution Contractors Relation Officer.
Eni CEO in Qatar to discuss LNG projects
Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi is the latest head of an international oil company to meet Qatar Petroleum CEO Saad Sherida al-Kaabi in the wake of QP's July 4 declaration that it means to expand LNG production by 30% to 100mn mt/yr within 5 to 7 months.
The 2 top executives met in Doha on July 23, 2017, and, according to Eni, discussed different aspects of the present and possible future cooperation between Qatar and Eni in the LNG field and in the whole oil sector.
Claudio Descalzi also met Qatar's Emir´s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
Eni buys LNG on a long-term contractual basis - chiefly through its Belgian subsidiary Distrigas although it has other Qatari LNG import contracts too.
Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne also met the QP CEO on July 11 and declared the French oil major willingness to further expand in Qatar, shortly after senior executives of Exxon Mobil and Shell were reported by Reuters to have visited the Gulf state to also discuss possible roles in Qatar's LNG expansion.
Eni currently has no upstream production or projects in Qatar.
Alexandroupoli FSRU project headed for PCI list reentry
The prospective floating LNG terminal in Alexandroupoli, northeastern Greece, stands a serious chance of regaining its place on a list of EU Projects of Common Interest (PCI), the results of a latest regional working group meeting in Brussels have indicated.
The Greek government’s effort to put the Alexandroupoli floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) back on the PCI list, which would facilitate EU funding, is believed to have gained momentum. The project is now expected to be placed in a second-tier group of projects seeking entry into the PCI list and, from there, eventually be promoted to the main PCI list, an energypress source informed.
The Alexandroupoli FSRU, to be developed by Gastrade, is expected to gain further PCI credibility once plans to develop the nearby Greek-Bulgarian IGB gas interconnector have been finalized.
As was recently reported by energypress, a plan to transform a depleted natural gas deposit in south Kavala, northern Greece, into an underground gas storage facility has regained its place on a revised PCI list, released on June 30.
The south Kavala underground gas storage facility had been removed from the PCI list during a revision made two years ago.
All other infrastructure projects of Greek interest have retained their places on this revised PCI list. These include the Poseidon gas pipeline, planned to run from Greece to Italy, indicating that this project is a serious contender for a role in a prospective new route to carry Russian gas to Europe (Turkish Stream) as well as another major project to bring gas to Europe from the eastern Mediterranean (East Med).
The Euro Asia Interconnector, a submarine cable project to link the Greek, Cypriot and Israeli electricity networks, as well as East Med, a prospective gas pipeline to transmit gas from Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to mainland Greece via Crete, have also retained their places on the PCI list.
So, too, has the IGB, the Greek-Bulgarian Interconnector, for which a final investment decision is expected imminently.
Tesla, a prospective natural gas pipeline to offer a link from Greece to Austria, is also on the updated PCI list.