Engineering company TechnipFMC has started engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) works for the expansion of the Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR) complex in Alexandria (Egypt). The EPC contract was signed in November 2018 and covers the debottlenecking of existing units as well as the delivery of new production units, including a crude distillation unit, a vacuum distillation unit, a hydrogen production facility based on its steam reforming technology as well as various process units, interconnecting, offsites and utilities.
The commissioning of the expansion project is set for 2022 and will enable to increase the refinery's original capacity of 100,000 bbl/d by 60% to a total of 160,000 bbl/d of crude oil. Since the refinery has already been expanded to 115,000 bbl/d, the project will raise its total capacity to 175,000 bbl/d. The modernised refinery will exclusively produce Euro V products. Once upgraded, its annual product quantities will increase to approximately 1.6 Mt/year of high-octane gasoline, 2.2 Mt/year of jet fuel and 2.8 Mt/year of diesel.
The MIDOR expansion project fits into the Egyptian government's strategy, which aims at investing approximately US$9bn over the next four years to boost the domestic refined products output to 41 Mt/year. Egypt currently has eight refineries with a capacity of 38 Mt/year, of which only 25 Mt/year are utilized.