Gas shortage puts brake on several petchem projects in Egypt

Several petrochemical projects in Egypt are facing delays due to a shortage in natural gas supplies and the authorities are now focusing on projects that utilize naphtha, Minister of Petroleum Sherif Ismail said.

"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," Ismail told Zawya.

Projects facing delays include a USD 2.2 billion fertilizer complex in the industrial zone west of Damietta port, which has a planned production capacity of two million tons of urea per year, the minister said.

A USD 408 million polystyrene complex in Dekheila port in Alexandria, with capacity of 200,000 tons per annum (tpa), has also been affected as well as a USD 1.6 billion ethylene and derivatives project in the Western Desert that would bring on stream an additional 460,000 tpa of ethylene production capacity.