Agreement on Saudi oil refining in Egypt

Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmi returned home late Monday winding up a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia where he held talks with senior officials at the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali al-Noami in statements after the talks, said that the two sides agreed to form a technical team to probe proposals on Saudi crude oil refining and marketing on the Egyptian market and exporting the remaining part to Africa and Europe.

"Also, the talks touched on other issues related to oil investments in Egypt," he added.

"Fahmi-Naomi talks dealt with means of strengthening joint cooperation in the field of petrochemicals in particular," Egyptian Consul Mohsein Bahaeddin said.

"The two sides also discussed details of a joint petrochemical project being implemented in Al-Ameriya, west of Alexandria," he added.

"The project's cost exceeds LE 1.5 billion and its annual productive capacity amounts to about 300,000 tons," he said.

An Egyptian diplomatic source in Jeddah explained that the Egyptian ministry of oil owns a rate of 10% of it and the rest of the shares are shared between businessmen from Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

It will start production in the first quarter of 2003, he added. The project falls within economic cooperation between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.