Egypt Clears a New SEZ for Oil Trading on the Mediterranean Coast

FTZ News: Egypt’s cabinet has approved a special free zone for Fujairah Alamein Oil and Gas Company, a move that adds another piece of infrastructure to the country’s push to expand its role in regional energy logistics. The decision, formalized in Cabinet Resolution No. 65 of 2026 and signed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on August 18, designates a 737,914.9-square-meter site in Matrouh Governorate for the storage and trading of crude oil and petroleum products.

The zone sits south of the Alexandria-Matrouh Coastal Road, near New Alamein City. Its northern edge runs 1,069.80 meters along the coastal highway. The southern boundary stretches 745.50 meters beside the still-under-construction M15 Road. To the east lies vacant land for 912.20 meters; to the west, the expansion area of El Hamra Port for 823.40 meters. The location is deliberate: close enough to existing port facilities to matter, yet set apart as a distinct customs territory.

Under the terms of the approval, the company must export 100 percent of its annual production. At least 50 percent of the value of its products must come from local content. These conditions are standard in Egypt’s special free-zone regime, which operates under Investment Law No. 72 of 2017. The rules are designed to ensure that the zones generate foreign-currency earnings and some domestic economic activity rather than simply serving as pure transit points.

Numbers and Scale

At roughly 74 hectares, the site is modest by the standards of major global oil logistics hubs. It is large enough, however, to support significant tank farms and related infrastructure. Egypt has been steadily adding free-zone capacity along its Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts in recent years, seeking to capture a larger share of the oil and refined-product flows that move between the Gulf, Europe and Asia. The Fujairah connection is notable. Fujairah, on the UAE’s east coast, is already one of the world’s key bunkering and storage locations outside the Strait of Hormuz. Linking that expertise to a site near Egypt’s northwestern coast suggests an attempt to create complementary capacity closer to European markets and the Suez Canal.

The 100-percent export rule and the 50-percent local-content floor are not unusual, but they do constrain the commercial model. Companies operating in such zones typically focus on blending, storage, and re-export rather than large-scale domestic sales. The local-content requirement can cover services, construction, or certain intermediate activities, yet it still forces operators to build some domestic supply relationships. For a pure trading and storage play, that can raise costs or complicate logistics.

Broader Context

Egypt’s free-zone program has long been one of the more active in North Africa. Successive governments have used the regime to attract investment in logistics, manufacturing and energy-related activities while insulating those projects from some of the frictions of the domestic economy. The New Alamein area itself has been marketed as a flagship coastal development, combining residential, tourism and industrial components. Adding a specialized oil-storage and trading zone fits the pattern of trying to diversify the economic base of the northwestern coast beyond tourism and real estate.

The timing of the approval also matters. Global oil markets remain sensitive to shipping costs, geopolitical risk and inventory levels. Storage capacity that can serve both Mediterranean and Red Sea routes retains strategic value. Whether this particular zone ultimately fills tanks and generates meaningful throughput will depend on the operator’s ability to secure offtake agreements, manage working capital and navigate Egypt’s broader operating environment—including currency, bureaucracy and infrastructure reliability.

For now, the decision is administrative rather than operational. The land has been designated, the export and local-content rules have been set, and the project has formal legal standing. Construction, tank capacity, and actual cargo volumes remain future questions. In the careful language of Egyptian investment decrees, the cabinet has opened a door. How much oil and product ultimately moves through it will be decided by markets, not by the resolution published this week./.