Major General Essam Saad, governor of Assiut, on Wednesday, received Engineer Tarek El-Molla, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources at Assiut International Airport, who is visiting the province to inspect the implementation of the hydrogen fracking project to be held on the territory of the province, which has investments of 2.9 billion dollars and owned by the Assuit National Oil Processing Company (Anopc), as part of the government’s plan and the Ministry of Petroleum to increase investment and expand projects in the coming period in implementation of the directives of the political leadership to develop the level.
The minister was also received by Majid Mustafa Mohammed al-Kurdi, president of Assiut Oil Refining Company, and Major General pilot Ashraf Adel, director of Assiut International Airport.
During the meeting, the Governor of Assiut announced his full support for the hydrogen fracking complex project, which is being held on the territory of the province, which is the largest oil refining project to be implemented in Upper Egypt at an investment cost of 2.9 billion dollars and is a strong addition to the Assiut refinery, which is currently the main pillar to provide between 60 and 65% of the needs of Upper and Southern Valley petroleum products.
The project is a claim to the state’s development efforts and programs on the ground, and is one of the most important refining projects underway during the current period, and aims to maximize the utilization of the state’s resources by using the latest technologies to refine oil using the technique of hydrogen fracking of low-value diesel to turn it into major high-value petroleum products needed by the local market, mainly diesel with European specifications, high-octane fuel oil, and natural gas.
He pointed out that the project achieves a distinct return in the field of development for the Upper Egypt region in terms of covering its needs of petroleum products and fuel supplies, as well as avoiding the safety and environmental risks associated with the transportation of petroleum products to Upper Egypt through various means, and will open up various prospects for development and contribute to the benefit of complementary activities and services and contribute to the provision of jobs, especially for the people of the province.
The Minister of Petroleum stressed that the ministry’s strategy is flexible and clearly planned with regard to refining and manufacturing, which is currently being implemented and aims to increase domestic production of gasoline and diesel to keep pace with the growing needs of the local market and serve sustainable development plans.
In order to point out that the management of this strategy with investment thinking and excellent experience has attracted investments from major international institutions and financing destinations that strongly trust in the Egyptian economy and the successes achieved by the Egyptian state in various fields.
He pointed out that the hydrogen fracking complex, which is built on the land of Assiut province and has a production capacity of 2.9 million tons per year of diesel in European specifications, in addition to NAFTA used in the production of high-octane fuel oil with an additional production capacity of 400 thousand tons per year and natural gas with an additional production capacity of 1,000 tons per year in addition to a coal production capacity of 300 thousand tons per year, sulfur with a production capacity of 66 thousand tons per year secondary products, as part of the program of the Ministry of Petroleum Mineral wealth to develop the refining industry to ensure the needs of the domestic market for fuel supplies and to reduce the quantities imported from abroad and reduce part of the import bill in order to save foreign exchange.