Egypt New Suez Canal to open

Egypt is preparing for the inauguration on Aug 6, of an $8.6bn expansion of the strategic Suez Canal, a project that President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi hopes will revive the country's ailing economy after years of instability.
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Cairo

SUMED pipeline

EGYPT

Red Sea

Mediterranean Sea

Port Said

Canal

Suez

Gulf of Suez
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SUEZ CANAL

Total length: 190km

Ballah bypass

Ismailia

Lake Timsah

Great Bitter Lake

EXPANSION

Length: 72km. 35km dug afresh, 37km expanding and deepening current canal

Cost: $4.3bn

Seven new tunnels for cars and trains – three in Port Said and four in Ismailia – will connect Sinai Peninsula to rest of Egypt

Completion: Aug 2015

Cost: $4.2bn

SINAI PENINSULA

EGYPT

10km 6 miles
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CANAL EXPANSION – MAIN GOALS

Allow two-way traffic of ships over much of canal’s length

Cut waiting time vessels spend in canal from 11 hours to three

Double capacity of existing canal from 49 to 97 ships a day by 2023

Triple revenues from $5.3bn to $13.2bn by 2023

Revenues from expansion to be used to develop 76,000km2 along canal into industrial and logistics hub
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OIL FLOW THROUGH CHOKEPOINTS (million barrels per day, 2013)

Danish Straits 3.3

Panama Canal 0.8

Turkish Straits 2.9

Oil flow via Suez Canal and SUMED pipeline accounts for around 8% of world’s total seaborne-traded oil 4.6

Strait of Hormuz 17.0

Bab el-Mandab 3.8

Strait of Malacca 15.2
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Sources: Suez Canal Authority, Middle East Institute, EIA

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