By Mohamed Adel
‘Abd al-Majid al-Rashidi, president of the Petroleum Development Company, discussed plans of the Ministry of Petroleum that allow the company to convert burned gas from oil fields into butane by extracting butane-condensate derivatives, sending them to the country’s national grid, and using it as injected gas to be stored in the nation’s petroleum reserves. This is hoped to help to increase production rates.
He added that Egypt’s holding company EGAS, and the General Petroleum Authority, in addition to two smaller companies, Gasco and Enppi will all take part in the project. He stated that during the project’s second phase diesel production units would be constructed, using waste generated from the extraction of petroleum.
Enppi is auctioning off the right to implement the project, and has so far received a large number of offers, which are currently being reviewed.
Al-Rashidi added that plans to extract butane from petroleum waste, 110m cubic feet of which gets burned daily, will help contribute to addressing the nation’s butane energy needs. He said this will help Egypt decrease the amount of butane it is required to import, which will lighten the burden on the national budget.
He added that the project would take place over a series of phases and would require the import of advanced technology, at a cost of $13m. The project would initially include the establishment of five butane extraction facilities, to be distributed throughout the nation’s various production locations.
