Egypt to promote $10 bn worth of petroleum projects at March conference: Ministry

Egypt will present 12 petroleum, petrochemicals and minerals projects worth $10 billion at the economic development conference set for mid-March, the petroleum ministry has said.

These projects are aimed at raising Egypt’s local production of petroleuThe m commodities and industrial chemicals in a bid to overcome the country's sharp energy shortages, the ministry added in a Tuesday statement.

The conference, due to take place in the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh in South Sinai, is expected to lure back international investors scared off by four years of political turmoil since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak

Egyptian investment banks will offer potential entrepreneurs seven projects worth $5 billion.These include a hydrocracking complex at the Assiut Oil Refinery Company at a cost of $2.8 billion, and a phosphate fertilisers and phosphoric acid plant worth $1.2 billion.

Other projects to be marketed at the global gathering include a $430 million complex with an annual production capacity of 375,500 tons of petroleum commodities.