Contractors are confident that Egypt’s £E4.1bn Mostorod New Refinery will come online before the end of the year, according to industry sources.

“So far the project is on track and should be fully operational before the end of year,” says one source.

The refinery is located 10 kilometres north of Cairo and will crack heavy products produced in Egypt to create lighter products including diesel and gasoline.

When the project was conceived, it was hoped it would cut Egypt’s diesel imports by half and gasoline imports by 40 per cent.

The scheme includes the following new facilities:

• Diesel hydrotreating unit (23,600 b/d)
• Vacuum distillation unit (81,500 b/d)
• Hydrocracker (39,600 b/d)
• Catalyst reforming unit (13,000 b/d)
• Delayed coker (16,700 b/d)

b/d=Barrels a day

The Mostorod New Refinery project was originally expected to come online in December 2016.

Financing problems have been cited as one of the reasons for the project delays.

The client is Egyptian Refining Company (ERC), a joint venture of state-controlled Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and Arab Refining Company.

Earlier this month, ERC managing director Mohamed Saad said the Mostorod facility would begin a test run in the third quarter of 2018.

He said the facility would start full operations before the end of the year or in early 2019.

The refinery’s output will be sold to EGPC and used domestically under a 25-year agreement.

Originally, the refinery was expected to cost about $3.5bn, but due to unforeseen problems the cost has risen to $4.1bn.