Arabs form $400m pipeline company

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33422, 2 January 1974, Page 15

Arabs form $400m pipeline company

(N.Z.P. A. -Reuter— Copyright) CAIRO, December 30.

Five Arab Stal SUS4OO million compai oil pipeline from Suez 1

The company was set up by Egypt, which will contribute half of the cost, and the oil-producing States of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar. The pipeline, which will bypass the blocked Suez Canal and run from Ein Sokhna, on the Gulf of Suez, to Sidi Kreir, west of Alexandria, will be able to carry 40m tons of oil a year when its first stage is completed in two years. U.S. CONTRACTOR It will be built by the Bechtel Corporation of the United States, which has built pipelines in Libya and Saudi Arabia.

Agreement on the forma-

;es have formed a tty to build a 207-mile :o Alexandria.

tion of the all-Arab firm, to be known as the Suez Gulf Mediterranean Oil Pipeline Company, was announced earlier this month after talks in Kuwait between Egypt’s Minister for Petroleum (Mr Ahmed Ezzedin Hilal) and officials of the four other countries.

The investments by the States are: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, SUS6Om each, Qatar, s2om. It has been estimated that, on completion, the pipeline will bring Egypt a minimum revenue of slsom a year. The initial Contract with Bechtel was signed a few days before the outbreak of last October’s Israeli-Arab war.

Construction of the pipeline: will begin next month.