Sonker receives $500M funding for Phase 2 of Bulk Liquids Terminal

CAIRO – 4 May 2017: Sonker Bunkering Company SAE managed to secure $500 million credit facilities for phase two of the bulk-liquids terminal in Ain Sokhna, a statement by the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation said on Thursday.
The financing will be provided by an international financial consortium and Amiral Company, the largest shareholder in Sonker.

The consortium includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Commercial International Bank (CIB).
The consortium will finance 64 percent of the total project, estimated at $320 million, while Amiral Company will finance 36 percent at a cost of $180 million, according to the statement.

Sonker has reactivated the financing deal with the EBRD and IFC after it was stalled last year.

Sonker is an Egyptian storage and bunkering company operating at the Ain Sokhna Port on the Red Sea. It was established in 2003 as a joint venture company between Amiral Company, Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, MISR Petroleum company and the Ministry of Finance.

In 2006, the company signed a concession agreement with the Egyptian government to build and operate a bulk liquids terminal for the import and storage of gasoil, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and natural gas in the third basin of the Sokhna Port.
Sonker had already started phase one of the project in 2009 on a total area of 150,000 M2, but phase two did not start due to financial disputes between the company and the Egyptian government.

Petrojet, the company responsible for the construction of the project, is working on completing phase one, which consists of three tanks with storage capacity of 150,000 cubic meters and three reservoirs of diesel with storage capacity of up to 100,000 cubic meters, in addition to the construction of new 40 km pipelines.

Investment Minister Sahar Nasr said that the agreement comes in light of the ministry’s efforts to eliminate all obstacles facing investors, pointing out that the ministry is working on encouraging international institutions to provide more support to Egypt’s private sector.

The giant project will play an important role in raising the efficiency of the energy sector’s infrastructure and will therefore boost the economy overall. It will also provide 2,400 direct and indirect job opportunities, the statement read.