Six foreign lenders are bidding to finance a project to upgrade Egypt's state-owned Middle East Oil Refinery (Midor)'s Alexandria refinery lab, an official banking source told Amwal Al Ghad Sunday. The six bidders expressed readiness to the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), who act as the financial advisors to secure US$1.4 billion finance for Midor's lab upgrade project. According to the source, the six bidders are; the France-based banks BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole, in addition to HSBC, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) and two other banks. Each bidder has offered to secure funding ranging between US$150-200 million, the source said. Midor seeks to expand its Alexandria refinery lab's capacity to produce around 245,000 tonnes of LPG, 1.3 million tonnes of high octane gasoline, 3.2 million tonnes of high quality jet fuel, 570,000 tonnes of coal, and 135,000 tonnes of sulfur, according to an earlier statement for chairman Mohamed Abdel Aziz. "Midor wants to increase production to meet Egypt's energy requirements and have the capacity to be able to refine for others," Abdel Aziz said. That would allow Midor, which provides a quarter of the country's petroleum product needs, to help Egypt face a growing energy crisis and eventually export, he said. "Midor wants to increase production to meet Egypt's energy requirements and have the capacity to be able to refine for others," Abdel Aziz said. Three consortia had offered to pitch for the financial advisor role on Midor's financing; namely the National Bank of Egypt and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, secondly Banque Misr and HSBC, and thirdly Commercial International Bank and one of the foreign banks. NBE and NBAD had won the bid and became the financial advisors for Midor's lab upgrade financing scheme; they are set to work on drafting the financing conditions and regulations before Midor starts to offer banks a new tender for the role of financing arrangers next November.
