French contractor TechnipFMC has announced it has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Egypt’s state-owned Middle East Oil Refinery (Midor) for the modernisation and expansion of its refinery in Alexandria.

The value of the Midor second phase project is estimated to be $2.2bn.

TechnipFMC did not reveal the value of its EPC contract. According to regional projects tracker MEED Projects, the EPC contract value is $1.7bn.

The scope of work on the EPC contract covers the debottlenecking of existing units as well as the delivery of new units including a crude distillation unit, a vacuum distillation unit, a hydrogen production facility based on TechnipFMC’s steam reforming technology, as well as various process units, interconnecting facilities, offsites and utilities.

Starting in 2022, the modernised complex will solely produce Euro V products, with a 60 per cent increase in the refinery’s original capacity to 160,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil, from 100,000 b/d currently.

‘The company is working with Midor to complete the remaining conditions precedent to enable project work to commence. The company will include the contract award in its inbound when all the requirements are fulfilled’, TechnipFMC said in its statement.

Meanwhile, Italian investment bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) Group has said it has provided financing worth $1.2bn to TechnipFMC, and 100 other Italian SMEs working on the project.

The funding was guaranteed by Italian lender SACE and granted by CDP, Crédit Agricole CIB and BNP Paribas Fortis – both acting as mandated lead arrangers.