Industry sources said the regime of President Hosni Mubarak has won the
promise of Chinese financing to construct a $2 billion refinery. The sources
said the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. would build a refinery
with a capacity of 15 million tons per year.
China has been deemed a strategic ally of Egypt, with the two countries
involved in energy and defense production. The sources said the refinery
would eventually be upgraded to reach an output of 30 million tons per year.
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Under the project, the China National Petroleum would operate the
refinery for 25 years before transferring ownership to Egypt. The sources
said China's Rongsheng Petrochemical Co. would also participate in the
refinery construction.
Egypt has been worried that its energy reserves could be
depleted over the next decade, Middle East Newsline reported.
Officials said the regime of President Hosni Mubarak has determined that
Egypt's crude oil and natural gas reserves could run out by 2020. They said
oil and gas reserves were estimated at 16 billion barrels of oil and 12
billion tons of gas.
Hussein Abdullah, a former undersecretary at Egypt's Petroleum Ministry,
has authored a study that warned of a national energy crisis before 2020.
Abdullah warned that exploration and development were rapidly exhausting
Egypt's energy reserves.
"Egypt must limit gas and petroleum production to domestic consumption,
so that its reserves can be used to meet the needs of future generations,"
Abdullah said.
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