Trial Run on Midor Expansion Project in Egypt to Commence By Mid-2022
Egypt’s state-owned Middle East Oil refinery is planning to commence a trial run on its ongoing Midor Expansion Project in Alexandria city by mid-this year according to the North African country’s petroleum and natural resources minister Tareq el Mulla.
Mr. Mulla made the revelation following a follow-up meeting with the Midor board where they discussed the progress made on the implementation of the project which aims to increase the overall production capacity of the facility.
Earlier, the project was scheduled to commence a trial run upon the completion of the first phase, as projected towards the end of the 2021 calendar year.
Scope of the Midor Expansion Project
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The scope of the project includes the construction of new crude and vacuum distillation unit, a diesel hydrotreater, solvent deasphalting, and a hydrogen unit, as well as the expansion of the existing naphtha hydrotreater unit, naphtha splitter unit, isomerization unit, hydrocracker unit, LPG treatment & recovery unit, and sulfur plant.
The project also entails the conversion of an existing diesel hydrotreater unit into a kerosene unit to process crude, and the modification of all utility units, auxiliary units, and refinery tanks so that they can support the expansion.
Expectations for the project
Once fully operational the facility is expected to increase the production of LPG by 107%, high-octane gasoline by 60%, jet fuel by 145%, and diesel by 45%. These are the equivalent of 280,000 million tonnes (Mt), 1.6Mt, 2.2Mt, and 2.8Mt respectively.
In addition, the project will also produce 0.57Mt of coke and 0.14Mt sulfur.
Earlier report on MIDOR expansion project
August 2021 MIDOR to start partial operations this year
Tareq el Mulla, the Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources in the Arab Republic of Egypt has announced that the Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR), which is currently undergoing expansion works, will start partial operations before the end of this current year (2021) following the completion of the first stage of the project.
The minister made the revelation after an inspection tour of the project, which includes the construction of new crude and vacuum distillation unit, a diesel hydrotreater, solvent deasphalting, and a hydrogen unit, as well as the expansion of the existing naphtha hydrotreater unit, naphtha splitter unit, isomerization unit, hydrocracker unit, LPG treatment & recovery unit, and sulphur plant.
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The project, whose aim is to increase the overall production capacity of the facility, also includes conversion of the existing diesel hydrotreater unit into a kerosene unit to process crude, and the modification of all utility units, auxiliary units, and refinery tanks so that they can support the expansion.
When fully completed the facility is expected to increase the production of LPG by 107%, high-octane gasoline by 60%, jet fuel by 145%, and diesel by 45%. These are the equivalent of 280,000 million tonnes (Mt), 1.6Mt, 2.2Mt, and 2.8Mt respectively. In addition, the project will also produce 0.57Mt of coke and 0.14Mt sulphur.
The project team
Financed to the tune of US$ 1.2bn by a consortium of international banks including CDP Bank, Credit Agricole Bank, and BNP Paribas with the Italian Export Credit Agency (SACE) and the Egyptian Ministry of Finance as guarantors, the Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR) expansion project is being undertaken by TechnipFMC.
UOP was engaged for the basic engineering design and detailed feasibility study of the project, while Wood Mackenzie, also known as WoodMac, conducted an updated market study.
March 2019 Work on Egypt’s Midor refinery expansion to begin
Construction works on the Egypt’s state-owned Middle East Oil Refinery Co.’s dubbed (Midor) is set to begin following TechnipFMC PLC completing the remaining conditions required to enable work to begin.
TechnipFMC PLC is mandated, by Egyptian Power Company for the delivery of engineering, procurement, and construction services related to the modernization and expansion of the oil refinery firm.
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Middle East Oil Refinery Co.’s
The billion-dollar project contract which was signed in June last year indicates that TechnipFMC will provide EPC services for the expansion, including de-bottle necking of existing units and delivery of new units including a crude distillation unit, vacuum distillation unit, hydrogen production plant based on proprietary steam reforming technology, as well as various process units, interconnecting, off sites, and utilities.
While announcing the original project in 2018, Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MPMR) said that the overall cost of Midor’s expansion project—which will include participation of Egypt’s ENPPI and Petro jet—will amount to about US $2.2bn.
The Middle East Oil Refinery Co.’s (Midor) expansion comes as part of Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MPMR’s) integrated plan to develop, upgrade, and increase efficiency and production quality of Egypt’s refineries through implementation of a series of new projects across manufacturing sites to help meet domestic petroleum product demand as well as reduce imports from abroad, said Tariq El-Molla, Egypt’s minister of petroleum and natural resources.
The project upon completion aims to increase to increase the overall refining capacity at the site by 60% to 175,000 barrels per day alongside raising the refinery’s current LNG production by about 145,000 tonnes per year, that of benzene 95% by about 600,000 tonnes per annum and lastly jet fuel by about 1.3 million tonnes yearly.
