Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and the European Union Delegation to Egypt announced launching new project with Belgium's Port of Antwerp to develop bunkering activity in Egypt. It comes during a new round of the EU-Egypt Energy Dialogue held on Tuesday evening. A number of topics of common interest were discussed in the round to speed up the implementation of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on strategic cooperation in energy that was signed between the EU and Egypt in April 2018. “The Port of Antwerp has extensive hands on experience that would help develop a vision based on analysis and assessment of the oil and gas hub strategy, including its implementation plan and other information as needed. This vision is necessary at this stage where Egypt is keen on developing a number of activities related to its role as an oil and gas hub,” said Ambassador Ivan Surkoš, head of the European Union Delegation to Egypt. The aim of the cooperation with the Port of Antwerp is to develop the bunkering business in Egypt in line with the country's oil and gas hub strategy, according to a statement from the EU delegation on Tuesday. The Port of Antwerp is one of the largest ports in Europe and it is a highly reputed port in terms of trading in oil and liquefied natural gas bunkering. Since the last energy dialogue that took place in July 2017, a number of milestones have been achieved. In terms of technical assistance, a €3m programme to support the technical and financial sustainability of the renewable energy and energy efficiency sector has been kick-started, said the statement, noting that additional €2m have recently been added to the programme to support the establishment of an Energy Efficiency Unit at the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources. The €15m grant contribution in the modernisation of the Suez Oil refinery project has been signed at the end of 2018 and the project is being implemented with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). At the same time, the tendering process for the 240MW wind farm in the Gulf of Suez is advancing with a number of European financial institutions involved namely KfW, AFD, and European Investment Bank (EIB). The total amount of the project is €340m. A number of initiatives are currently in preparation, including distribution and grid reinforcement projects with the ministry of electricity and renewable energy. With the ministry of petroleum and mineral resources, the EU is discussing the upgrade of a refinery, as well as an energy efficiency programme, in a gas transmission project in Upper Egypt. The establishment of the second phase of the green energy financing facility with EBRD is well advancing. In the energy sector alone, the EU has a number of ongoing projects and programmes in which more than €300m in grants have been injected, leveraging more than €1bn in concessional loans from the European financial institutions.
