Egypt has approved a nearly 738,000-square-metre private free zone in New Alamein for crude oil and petroleum-product storage and trading, advancing a 2025 partnership with the Emirate of Fujairah.
The government authorised Fujairah Alamein Oil and Gas Company, an Egyptian joint-stock company, to establish the zone on 737,914.9 square metres south of the Alexandria-Matrouh coastal road in Matrouh governorate under Cabinet Decision No. 65 of 2026, published in the Official Gazette.
The site borders the expansion area of El-Hamra Petroleum Port, linking the project to existing crude-storage and transport infrastructure on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
The approval advances three agreements signed between Egypt and Fujairah in October 2025 covering the establishment of a joint company and Mediterranean logistics zone for crude and petroleum products, crude storage at El-Hamra and petroleum-product supplies to Egypt. The partnership also envisages expanding and upgrading the port using Fujairah’s experience in oil storage and logistics.
Mediterranean logistics venture
The project is primarily a midstream and logistics venture rather than an upstream production or refining investment. Its location alongside El-Hamra is intended to combine Fujairah’s oil-storage and trading expertise with Egypt’s Mediterranean petroleum infrastructure and access to European, African and Middle Eastern markets.
Egypt also operates the SUMED system connecting the Red Sea and Mediterranean, giving the country established infrastructure for moving and storing crude between the two coasts. The Petroleum Ministry has identified the Fujairah partnership alongside SUMED as part of efforts to increase the commercial use of Egypt’s energy infrastructure.
For Egypt, the potential revenue streams include storage, handling, terminal and trading services, providing a different source of foreign-currency earnings from domestic oil and gas production.
Regional disruption to energy and shipping markets has increased the relevance of diversified storage infrastructure, although the Fujairah-Alamein initiative predates the current US-Israeli war with Iran.
Project economics remain undisclosed
The project’s commercial scale cannot yet be determined.
Neither the Cabinet decision nor previously announced agreements disclose its investment value, planned storage capacity, expected annual throughput, ownership percentages, construction timetable or commissioning date.
Public disclosures have also not established the extent of dedicated pipeline or other physical connections between the free zone and El-Hamra’s existing facilities.
Those figures will be critical in assessing whether Fujairah-Alamein develops principally as a specialised storage and trading operation or into a larger petroleum terminal serving Mediterranean markets.
Export-focused free zone
The decree requires the company to comply with Egypt’s private free-zone, environmental and industrial-safety regulations, including conditions requiring the export of annual production and a minimum local-content component.
The approved activity is explicitly described as storage and trading of crude oil and petroleum products, rather than refining or manufacturing. References in the decree to production and local content should therefore be treated as free-zone operating conditions rather than evidence of plans for a refinery or manufacturing complex.
The project will operate under the supervision of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, while the company must establish legal possession of the site and secure the required environmental approvals.
Egypt seeks greater returns from energy infrastructure
The venture comes as Egypt pursues two parallel objectives: increasing domestic hydrocarbon production to reduce import exposure while seeking greater commercial returns from its existing petroleum and transport infrastructure.
Fujairah-Alamein addresses the second objective. Its economics will depend less on Egyptian crude production than on the volumes of petroleum stored, handled and traded through the facility and the infrastructure connecting it with El-Hamra and wider regional markets.
The project also deepens energy cooperation between Egypt and the UAE at a time when Emirati capital has expanded across Egyptian infrastructure and logistics.
The venture’s commercial significance will ultimately depend on the capital committed, storage capacity, infrastructure links and petroleum volumes handled. If developed at scale, Fujairah-Alamein could add another source of fee-based foreign-currency earnings from Egypt’s Mediterranean energy infrastructure.
Related news:
Scatec to Invest EGP 5 Billion in Egypt Renewable Energy Grid Infrastructure
Angel Yeast Plans Up to $300m Expansion to Serve Regional Export Markets
Read also:
Scatec to Invest EGP 5 Billion in Egypt Renewable Energy Grid Infrastructure
China Tests Arctic Shortcut as Global Shipping Pays More for Resilience
