Qalaa’s USD 4.3 bn Egyptian Refining Company facility will begin commercial production in June, running at 60% capacity and ramping up to full production by September, Qalaa Holdings Chairman Ahmed Heikal told Al Masry Al Youm. Qalaa, the company leading the project, successfully completed trial runs for the CCR and VDU units of ERC last month, and has already supplied the EGPC — which will purchase ERC’s total production of 4.7 mn tonnes of refined oil a year — with some 100k tonnes of low-sulfur petroleum products. Heikal previously said the refinery will satisfy about 14% of Egypt’s annual need for liquid petroleum products. ERC will sell its full output to EGPC on a 25-year offtake agreement at international prices.