Shortages in natural gas supply have held back petrochemical projects in Egypt.
The country’s minister of Petroleum, Sherif Ismail said that the country is now turning to projects that make use of naphtha.
“The country is suffering from a shortage in gas supplies, which has affected completion of some petrochemical projects, on which work had already started, since they rely on natural gas,” said Ismail.
Some projects which are facing delays are; the $2.2 billion fertilizer complex in the industrial zone west of Damietta port and a $408 million polystyrene complex in Dekheila port in Alexandria.
According to the minister, the fertilizer complex has a planned production capacity of two million tons of urea per year while the polystyrene complex has a planned capacity of 200, 000 tons per annum (tpa).
A $1.6 billion ethylene and derivatives project in the Western Desert has also been affected. That project is expected to add 460,000 tpa to ethylene production capacity.
“These two projects (polystyrene and ethylene) were due enter the testing phase during the first half of this year, but they are now delayed to the first quarter of 2015,” he said.
By the end of the year, the ministry plans to offer a $2 billion project for a complex in Suez Gulf Industrial Zone, which will produce benzene, propylene and polyethylene.
