Egypt's three state-owned petroleum companies, namely Alexandria Petroleum Company, Assiut Oil Refining (ASORC) and Cairo Oil Refining (CORC), are planning to produce 14.5 million tonnes of petroleum products within the financial year 2018/2019. They also seek to refine around 16 million tonnes of crude within the financial year 2018/2019 to fill satisfy domestic needs from petroleum products. The companies target producing 4.4 million tonnes of diesel, 3.1 million tonnes of gasoline, 216,000 tonnes of butane gas and 800,000 tonnes of jet fuel. The government is supporting state-owned companies working in the refining and petrochemicals sector to boost their production, Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Tarek el-Molla said this month. Egypt produces 4.4 million tonnes of gasoline annually, while it consumes seven million tons. Production of diesel amounts to eight million tonnes, while consumption reaches 14.5 million tonnes. Meanwhile, the country produces 2.1 million tonnes of butane gas, while it consumes 4.3 million tonnes. Egypt covers the gap between production and consumption through importing. Egypt's Petroleum Ministry aims to increase its annual production of gasoline, diesel, butane gas, and jet fuel by 11.6 million tons in the next four years, at an investment of $8.3 billion, boosting total production to around 28.5 million tonnes, up from the current 16.9 million tonnes. This comes as part of the ministry's scheme to expand and develop refineries to boost domestic production of petroleum products, with the aim of filling the gap between production and consumption. Under the plan, the ministry targets producing 3.113 million tonnes of gasoline, 6.603 million tons of diesel, 481,000 tonnes of butane gas and some 1.438 million tonnes of jet fuel. Developing the petrochemical industry will result in an improvement in plastics industry, fibers industry and other related industries. Source: Egypt today
