Anchorage Investments lets contract for PP unit at proposed Suez complex
Anchorage Investments Ltd. has let a contract to a division of Lummus Technology LLC to provide technology licensing and additional services for a polypropylene (PP) unit to be built at subsidiary Anchor Benitoite’s proposed grassroots petrochemical complex in Suez, Egypt, near the southern boundary of the Suez Canal.
As part of the contract, Lummus Novolen Technology GMBH will license its proprietary Novolen gas-phase polypropylene (PP) technology for a new 590,000-tonnes/year PP unit at the complex, as well as deliver basic design engineering, training, catalyst supply, and operator-training simulator services for the project, Lummus said on May 20.
Then Novolen PP plant will produce PP using propylene produced from another unit within the complex, said Dr. Ahmed M. A. Moharram, founder and managing director of Anchorage Investments.
The service provider disclosed no further details regarding a value of the contract or the duration of the project.
This latest contract award follows Anchorage Investments’ late-April award to Honeywell UOP to license its proprietary C3 Oleflex technology for a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant at the complex that will produce 750,000 tpy of on-purpose, polymer-grade propylene (OGJ Online, Apr. 29, 2021).
Requiring an overall investment of nearly $2 billion, Anchor Benitoite’s proposed petrochemical complex at Suez will house five major installations with various production units equipped to produce a total of 1.75 million tpy of petrochemical products, including propylene, polypropylene, crude acrylic acid, n-butanol, and butyl acrylate, according to Anchorage Investment’s website.
Intended to help Egypt increase its competitiveness and position as a petrochemical hub, as well as attract new investments into the country, the grassroots complex will have deep-sea access to the port and connection to multiple nearby pipelines, enabling product distribution to both domestic and global markets, according to the company.
A timeline for construction and commissioning of the proposed petrochemicals development has yet to be revealed.
Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor
Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.
