Egyptian refiner Suez Oil Processing Company (SOPC) is also tapping EBRD for a loan, in this case $50mn for improving operating efficiency and fuel quality of the company’s aging 60,000 b/d nameplate capacity refinery near the southern entrance to the Suez Canal. Throughput has been limited to around 35,000 b/d in recent years by a lack of investment (MEES, 27 September). In a 23 November announcement, EBRD said the funding follows a $200mn loan to SOPC in May 2018. The earlier loan is being used by SOPC for installing a new vapour recovery unit and upgrading an old coker so it can produce middle distillates to Euro 4/5 specifications (MEES, 23 March 2018).

EBRD says that since it began operating in Egypt in 2012 it has invested over €5.5bn ($6.1bn) in 102 projects there. EBRD says Egypt received the bank’s largest number of new commitments in 2018. (CONTINUED - 140 WORDS)