US Bechtel to provide PMC services for Egypt’s largest petrochemical project

US-based Bechtel is scheduled to ink a contract with Egypt’s Carbon Holdings to provide project management consultancy (PMC) for Tahrir Petrochemical Complex (TPC) late June, MEED reported Wednesday, citing industry sources.

The four separate engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, which have been awarded to US Bechtel, Germany’s Linde, Italy’s Maire Tecnimont, and Greece’s Archirodon, are also to be signed in June.

The news website highlighted that the four entities providing the financing of the project are France’s Euler Hermes, the UK’s export credit agency, Canada’s export credit agency, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which is the US government’s development finance institution.

“Commercial bank syndication for funding is taking place under Euler Hermes and the UK’s export credit agency and is currently in the market,” MEED said.

Industry sources noted that approvals are expected to be obtained in July and the project’s financial close is due in the fourth quarter in 2018.

The project has seen several delays after its first scheduled completion date in 2017.

Tahrir Petrochemical Complex will include a 1.5 million ton-a-year (t/y) ethylene cracker and a polyethylene facility with capacity of about 1.4 million t/y. It will also produce propylene, polypropylene, hexene, butadiene, benzene, and styrene.

Constructed in Egypt’s Suez Special Economic Development Zone with total investments of $8 billion, TPC is expected to be the largest naphtha cracker plant in the world.