US-based Bechtel has signed a project management consultancy (PMC) contract with Egypt’s Carbon Holdings for the $10.9bn Tahrir Petrochemical Complex (TPC), according to industry sources.

The PMC contract for Egypt’s largest-ever petrochemical project was signed at a ceremony on 30 June.

MEED reported that Bechtel had been selected for the contract award in May.

Four separate engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts were also signed at the ceremony by Bechtel, Germany’s Linde, Italy’s Maire Tecnimont, the local company Hassan Allam Construction, and Greece’s Archirodon.

In a statement released on Friday, Egypt’s Cabinet said the project would cover an area of 5 million square metres and provide 48,000 jobs. 

Originally, the project was expected to be completed in 2017, but has been subject to several setbacks and delays.

Some of the delays were connected to Egypt’s revolution and the subsequent turmoil, and more recently to financing problems. 

In 2015, Carbon Holdings said it expected financing to close by the end of the year and that it would be provided by five agencies, but talks were put on hold because Export-Import Bank of the US (US Exim) could not lend new cash until its licence was renewed by Congress. 

The TPC scheme includes the construction of a 1.5 million tonne-a-year (t/y) ethylene cracker and a polyethylene facility with a capacity of about 1.4 million t/y.

Other major products will include propylene, polypropylene, hexene, butadiene, benzene and styrene. When completed it is expected to be the largest naphtha cracker plant in the world. 

Designed to serve local and export markets, TPC will be constructed in Egypt’s Suez Special Economic Development Zone, with raw materials received and products shipped from the Gulf of Suez.