Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Tarek el-Molla met on Wednesday with a number of ministers to discuss the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
During his meeting with the ministers of civil aviation, environment, trade, industry, agriculture, land reclamation, and the public business sector, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in the New Administrative Capital.
In a statement Wednesday, the minister further noted that studies are being conducted for the first project to produce SAV, an alternative fuel made from non-petroleum feedstocks that reduces emissions from air transportation.
The petroleum sector developed a vision and a strategy for its implementation through the Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM), with the help of international institutions, to prepare studies and complete the initial stages of the project and its finance arrangements.
He also stressed the importance of this meeting in supporting joint coordination between the ministries and sectors concerned with this new field with the view to exploiting all powers and capabilities to speed up the implementation of the project.
This project comes in line with the Egyptian State’s direction to achieve sustainable and green development and keep pace with global trends in this regard.
Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad expressed her ministry’s readiness to cooperate with the ministries of petroleum and civil aviation in developing a general framework for a strategy for producing and using sustainable fuel for aircraft, whether from used cooking oils (UCOs) or from crops from which it is derived.
Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Abbas Helmy presented the ministry’s vision aimed at using SAF in the civil aviation sector, in accordance with what was approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
He further underlined Egypt’s participation within the African group in the third ICAO Conference on Aviation and Alternative Fuels (CAAF/3) was held from November 20 to 24, 2023 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, during which the participants adopted a 2030 goal for SAF deployment at a global level, and a global framework of enabling actions.
Helmy added that “ICAO” member states are working together towards reaching at least 5% of the aircraft’s supply of SAF by 2030.
