Egypt’s Middle East Oil Refinery Company (Midor) has signed two agreements with the US-based multinational oil company UOP. The agreements are to acquire licences for technology for the planned project to expand the refinery, which is expected to be worth $1.4bn.

The expansion project is aiming to increase the refinery’s capacity from 100,000 barrels a day (b/d) to 160,000 b/d. An agreement to carry out feasibility studies for an expansion to Alexandria’s Midor Refinery was signed on 9 August 2014.

The Alexandria-based Midor refinery is already considered to be the most advanced in Africa. It came onstream in 2000 and currently has 16 processing units, most of which are licensed by UOP, and includes Egypt’s sole hydrocracker.