afrol News, 17 February - A large-scale new ammonia plant is to be built in Egypt's Suez Industrial Zone, further increasing the country's significant ammonia and fertilizer production and exports. American suppliers to the plant today achieved government guarantees to secure their investments here.

The new plant will be built for Egypt Basic Industries Company (EBIC), an Egyptian exporter of ammonia. The anhydrous ammonia plant is to be constructed in Sokhna Port, located in Egypt's Suez Industrial Zone. It will become the largest ammonia plant in Egypt so far, measured by production quantities.

EBIC has proposed to build a "greenfield anhydrous ammonia plant" with a production of 2,000 metric tons per day. The industrial complex is to further include a pipeline corridor connecting the ammonia production plant to product storage tanks located in Sokhna Port. The ammonia plant design will be based on processes developed and owned by the US company Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a subsidiary of the infamous Halliburton company.

The project company, Egypt Basic Industries Company (EBIC), is expected to be owned by the following sponsors: KBR; PSK Holdings, an Egyptian petrochemical company; Orascom Construction Industries, a major Egyptian construction firm; The Egyptian General Petroleum Corp., the state-owned oil and gas company; and several other private investors.

The new ammonia plant in the Suez area will be the last among Egypt's many ammonia and fertilizer producers, a sector that is currently attracting much investment. Egypt already houses around ten fertiliser plants that are using petroleum products to produce fertiliser intermediates and components.

The Egyptian government during the last few years has provided the infrastructure for large, new investments in the fertiliser sector. The country has been self-sufficient in fertilisers for many years, but is using its knowledge of the sector, together with access to cheap labour and crudes, to develop the burgeoning petrochemical industry into a major export sector.

During the last few years, the Egyptian chemical industry therefore has been able to attract significant investments in further developments. Only last year, plans to construct a methanol and ammonia plant in Egypt's Mediterranean Industrial Zone in Damietta gained momentum with grants from the US and Egyptian government. The Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (Echem) plans to use natural gas, which is abundant in the zone, to produce methanol and ammonia for exports.

The plant in the Suez area, on the other hand, today received a major financial boost as the US government's Export-Import Bank approved a US$ 229.8 million long-term guarantee to back the proposed sale by KBR and 21 further US suppliers of equipment and services to build the plant. "This project will create and sustain US jobs and lay the groundwork for potential follow-on business in Egypt for US exporters, while supporting Egypt's industrial and economic development goals," commented Ex-Im Bank Chairman Philip Merrill.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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