Egypt and Qatar’s Al Mana Holding have finalized a $200 million agreement for sustainable aviation fuel
Egypt’s cabinet said on Sunday that it has inked a $200 million first-phase investment deal with Qatar’s Al Mana Holding to turn used cooking oil into sustainable aviation fuel in the Suez Canal Economic Zone at Ain Sokhna.
The project, which would cover 100,000 square meters in the Integrated Sokhna Zone on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, will be constructed in three stages. According to a statement from the government, the first phase would have an estimated 200,000 tonnes of production capacity per year.
According to Egypt, the agreement represents the first industrial investment from Qatar in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.
Egypt has been working for years to attract international investment, particularly from wealthy Gulf states, in order to address its massive budget deficit and high foreign debt.
The project, according to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, “reflects the positive momentum in relations between Cairo and Doha, driven by the shared political will to advance bilateral cooperation through joint investments and increased trade.”
The national wealth fund of Qatar said last month that it would invest $29.7 billion to build a luxury real estate and tourism project on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt.
That agreement was the biggest Qatari investment in the nation since diplomatic ties were reestablished after an economic rupture from 2017 to 2021, during which Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain severed ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and aligning too closely with Iran—charges that Doha refuted.
