Huckbody Environmental was commissioned by Worley Parsons and the Egyptian Refinery Company (ERC) to Project Manage the expansive ESIA for the proposed new $3 billion oil refinery in the Mostorod District of Cairo in Egypt.
ERC will purchase from EGPC straight run atmospheric residue (feedstock) containing valuable light products. CORC does not have the facility to extract these products and currently EGPC sells their product as a standard fuel oil without realising the embedded value. The atmospheric residue contains double the valuable diesel-range material (15%) as comparable products sold on the open market (Russian M100 Fuel Oil, 8% diesel).
The ERC Project will largely utilise feedstock from the CORC facilities’ existing units and will sell its entire production of refined products to EGPC at international prices. ERC will produce European (EU V) grade diesel and IATA worldwide specification jet fuel for use solely in the domestic market of Egypt. The main products include:
• Diesel;
• Jet fuel/Kerosene;
• Reformate, Naphtha;
• Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG); and
• Fuel Oil.
ERC will create up to 700 permanent jobs, in addition to the services that will benefit indirectly from the Project. During the construction phase the Project is expected to create over 8 000 direct temporary jobs.
The ESIA took over 6 months to complete and involved 40 staff covering a range of E&S issues, with key aspects focussing on air and water quality, along with social issues due to the huge surrounding population in close proximity to the refinery site. The ESIA included several tranches of air quality computer modelling that finally demonstrated the net environmental benefits of the project, namely reductions in Sulphur Dioxide and other air pollutants compared to the existing situation.
The Project included co-financing with a major investment by the European Investment Bank, therefore every element of the ESIA was conducted in accordance with International Best Practice and World Bank Performance Standards.
Huckbody Environmental provided extensive inputs both in Egypt and in the UK and was commended for its performance by the Client, ERC.