The Libyan government has purchased the 39 percent stake formerly held by Israeli companies in Egypt’s Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR) for $430 million. The deal follows an agreement between the two states to set up a twin pipeline to carry Libyan crude to Alexandria and Egyptian gas to Libya, reported AFP
The Libyan party bought the shares from the state-owned National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the purchaser of Israeli Merhav Group’s stake in the refinery and shares held by other Israeli firms.
The state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) holds the controlling stake in MIDOR, as it owns a 40 percent direct stake and another 20 percent through its subsidiaries Petrojet and ENPPI.
Once a joint venture between the Egyptian government and the privately held Israeli Merhav Group, the $1.3 billion refinery began production at the beginning of 2001. The original plan for Israel’s largest investment in Egypt was for private Israeli and Egyptian businessmen, with an Egyptian Government minority interest, to build an offshore refinery in Egypt to process a variety of Gulf crudes distributed by the Sumed pipeline and export the petroleum products to Israel and other Mediterranean markets.
As relations between Egypt and Israel soured with the escalation of the Palestinian uprising in 2001 and domestic opposition to the project started growing, the Egyptian Government decided to take full control of the operation. Instead of serving international markets as originally planned, EGPC integrated Midor into its domestic refinery system to meet local needs. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
