Siemens Energy has signed a long-term contract to provide preventive maintenance services for the Egyptian Company for the Production of Ethylene & its Derivatives (Ethydco) at the firm's industrial complex in Alexandria.

The German company will undertake the work under a 10-year service contract covering three Siemens SGT-800 industrial gas turbines, which have been in operation since 2017.

As part of the agreement, the Siemens Energy industrial applications team will provide outage services, spare parts provision and repairs for the gas turbines.

The power plant currently produces 150MW of electricity to power Ethydco's petrochemicals complex in Alexandria, which is the largest in Africa.

Maintenance general manager at Ethydco, Ayman el-Shafei, said: “As a key contributor to the petrochemicals and downstream industries in Egypt, we focus on strengthening the all-round efficiency and safety standards of our plants.”

He added: “Reducing unplanned downtime and increasing the operational workflow is critical to achieving our production targets.

“The long-term preventive service agreement with Siemens Energy is aligned with our strategy.”

Head of Siemens Energy at its Egyptian service and digital business unit, Ashraf Hamasa, said, “This latest agreement with Egypt is symbolic of the benefits that Siemens Energy can provide, not just in terms of operational and availability improvements, but also in terms of environmental benefits, with reduced emissions.”

Ethydco is an Egyptian joint stock company established on 16 January 2011 under Egyptian investment law with total investment cost of $1.9bn.

Egyptian petrochemicals

Petrochemicals are becoming an increasingly important part of Egypt’s broader economic strategy.

In May, Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, Tarek el-Molla, announced a $19bn plan for the country’s petrochemicals sector.

In a statement, he said the plan would consist of 11 projects that would be implemented in 2020-35.

El-Molla said that his ministry designed the plan to support the country’s petrochemicals sector and help it respond to the world's changing demand for hydrocarbons products in coming years.

He also described the programme to expand Egypt's petrochemicals sector as ambitious and said it focused on projects "that would achieve the highest added value from natural resources".

The programme includes the development of two large-scale refining and petrochemicals complexes, which will be located in the Suez Canal Economic Zone and New Alamein City.