Citadel Refinery, Mostorod, Egypt

The Mostorod refinery is situated near Cairo and is already one of Egypt's largest refineries with a throughput of 142,000bpd.

As part of an ongoing programme by the Egyptian Government (Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum) to increase the oil-processing capacity of the country the site is now under development with a further new refinery being constructed adjacent to it (Citadel). The government has plans to increase production of lighter products, petrochemicals and the higher-octane gasoline products by expanding and upgrading existing facilities.

In addition there are plans to build five new refineries and petrochemical plants valued at $2.5bn. Egypt's refineries already have the capacity to process more than 546,000bpd of crude.

MOSTROD REFINERY

Mostorod Refinery has a working capacity of 142,000bpd and a design capacity of only 115,000bpd.

The refinery is operated by the Cairo Oil Refining Co (CORC), a unit of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp (EGPC); and first came onstream in 1973.

It produces a variety of products including: gasoline, LPG, naphtha, propane and fuel gas. A vapour recovery unit at the refinery came onstream in 1985 with a processing capacity of 74,000t/y of LPG, 286,000t/y of naphtha, 26,000t/y of propane and 15,000t/y of fuel gas.

At the refinery there is also a light naphtha isomerisation unit producing 330,000t/y of high-octane unleaded gasoline and a hydrotreating unit, both of which use processing technology licensed by UOP LLC (subsidiary of Honeywell) of the US, have been installed at Mostorod, together with a state-of-the-art control system, a power distribution network and a fire protection system.

General utilities were also upgraded in 2000 as part of a project completed by EGPC's engineering unit ENPPI (Engineering for the Petroleum & Process Industries).

NEW CITADEL REFINERY

The new 'Citadel' refinery at the Mostorod complex is being constructed in an industrial area which is situated 10km to the north of Cairo, on land which was provided by the CORC.

The new project requires an investment of $2.4bn and preparatory work started on the project in September 2007 (the project is expected to be completed by September 2011).

The project management consultant is WorleyParsons of Australia and the main EPC contract worth $1.8bn was awarded in August 2007 to the JV of Mitsui of Japan and GS Engineering & Construction of South Korea, which was due to start in early February 2008. GS will carry out the engineering and construction element, with Mitsui providing procurement services.

The plant will include a two-million-tons-a-year unit for the production of high-quality diesel. The other complex units will include an 80,000bpd Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU), and a 40,000bpd hydrocracker that can transform lower-quality products into the middle distillates which are in higher demand. The crude distillation units are being constructed by ENPPI.

The annual capacity of the refinery will be five million tons or (100,000bpd) of refined products (2.5 million tons of diesel oil when the complex is complete).

FINANCIAL

The plant will be operated by the Egyptian Refining Co (ERC) in conjunction with CORC. The project is being financed by a debt / equity split of about 65:35 (debt from medium and long-term bank loans).

Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale are the financial advisers on the loan. Citadel Capital, an Egyptian private equity firm is providing the equity.

Citadel owns 85% of the ERC and EGPC have 15%. Swicorp Joussour based in Riyadh also acquired a stake in the new refinery in January 2008 worth $200m.

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