Privately owned Egyptian firm Carbon Holdings has signed a $500m agreement with the US’ GE for technology and equity support for its planned Tahrir Petrochemicals complex in the north of Egypt.

Under the agreement, GE will provide equity financing and technology for the plant in Ain Sokhna, including gas and steam turbines, generators, water filtration and desalination equipment, and turbo machinery compressors.

The deal, announced in a joint statement by GE and Carbon Holdings, does not specify GE’s equity stake in the project.

The complex is being billed by Carbon Holdings as the world’s largest naphtha liquid cracker, with a capacity of 3.5 million tonnes a year (t/y). It will produce 1.36 million t/y of ethylene and polyethylene, as well as significant quantities of propylene, benzene, butadiene and linear alpha olefins.

It will also include an integrated 300MW power plant, along with a water treatment plant and a 3,800-cubic-metres-an-hour desalination plant.

Carbon Holdings previously estimated the cost of the complex at approximately $3.5bn, but the figure has now risen to $4.8bn. Germany’s Linde is the lead engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor and also the key technology provider.

Linde was appointed in September 2012 to replace US engineering firm Shaw Group after Carbon Holdings launched legal action against the US firm. Linde is working in consortium with South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction and the UK’s Petrofac.