Roger Edward Tamraz (Arabic: روجيه تمرز) is an international banker and venture capital investor who has had an active business career in oil and gas in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the United States since the early 1960s.
[9][10] Tamraz served for many years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the American University in Cairo, where he endowed a number of named scholarships for Egyptian students of exceptional promise.
[10][15] Tamraz acquired ownership of Chantiers Navals de la Ciotat [fr] (CNC), the second-largest shipyard in France, in the early 1970s.
This company was one of the early pioneers in the construction of LNG vessels for oceangoing natural gas transport, and also specialized in submarines, patrol boats and other military platforms.
In addition, the yard constructed very large crude carriers (VLCC5) and conventional bulk cargo vessels for the civilian maritime industry.
Using Bechtel Corporation as prime contractor, the pipeline, which comprises two parallel 42-inch lines, was opened in 1978 with a capacity of 1.6 million barrels per day (250,000 m3/d).
[10][15] Concurrently with the SUMED project, Tamraz conceived and financed the world’s largest chemical methanol plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia in partnership with Japan’s Itochu Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Prior to selling, he expanded the company to 3,000 service stations, three refineries, an extensive pipeline distribution system and a refining capacity of 250,000 barrels (40,000 m3) of oil per day.
This agreement was essential to the success of the project, which was eventually completed by BP after its purchase of Amoco, with which Tamraz had been cooperating in the Central Asian area.
During this period, Tamraz acquired equity ownership positions in Turkmenistan’s Blocks I and II two of that country’s major oil and gas producing properties.
[30][31][32][33] The pipeline would have run through Armenia and Turkey in Central Asia, and the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, but ran into resistance from Heydar Aliyev.
[35][36] Tamraz was not extradited or detained by the US, despite the warrant, but was briefly considered an international fugitive, though he stated he was "allowed to travel freely throughout the world.