Cairo- Mubasher: Oil giant Saudi Aramco will begin refining its crude oil in the Egyptian refineries in the first quarter of 2018, Al Shorouk newspaper reported on Monday, citing an official at the Egyptian Petroleum Ministry as saying.
Egypt has been in talks with Aramco to define quantities of crude that will be refined in the Egyptian refineries which have extra capacity.
Egypt has 8 oil refineries, with an underused production capacity of around 13 million tonnes per year, the official added.
Egypt’s talks with Aramco include refining crude at Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR) in the coastal city of Alexandria, then Egypt receives 700,000 tonnes of refined products according to its previous contract with Aramco, and the surplus will be exported.
Egypt started preliminary negotiations with the state-run Saudi Arabian Oil Company to refine the Saudi crude at the Egyptian refineries, Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla said on 15 November.
In October, Egyptian officials said that Saudi Aramco had signed a contract with MIDOR to refine crude shipments in the latter's refinery in Alexandria.
