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| Egypt's petroleum minister Tarek El Molla during a meeting (Photo: Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum website) |
Egypt's oil refinery MIDOR will finance its planned expansion, borrowing $1.2 billion from French lenders Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas, a loan that will be guaranteed by the Italian central bank and the Italian export development authority, oil minister Tarek El-Molla told Egyptian state news daily Al-Ahram.
MIDOR signed in April two deals worth $1.4 billion with US-based engineering company UOP to design the expansion of the refinery, raising its capacity to 160,000 barrels per day from 100,000 barrels per day.
The project, which starts this year and will span over three years, would allow Egypt to cut its petroleum product imports and export refined oil products, raising sources of foreign currency, according to Al-Ahram.
