Egyptian petroleum ministry’s debt registers $3.2 bln in 2017

The total value of  petroleum receivables owed to foreign companies dwindled to $ 2.3 billion by the end of June 2017, Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla announced on Sunday .

Molla further explained that the figure reach its lowest  levels since 2013, when it recorded $6.3 billion.

The Ministry of Petroleum referred that this year has witnessed  the beginning of establishing a comprehensive strategy to change Egypt into a regional center for trading gas and oil  as well as the issuance of oil market activities law by a presidential decree.

On the other hand, The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) repaid $ 2.2 billion to international oil companies in June, after the debts had reached $4.5 billion dollars at the end of December 2016.

Dues owed by the EGPC amounted to $ 3.5 billion by the end of March. However, Molla said at that time that Egypt would pay off half of the oil debt within “weeks”.

In 2017, it has been announced that  the timetable announced for finishing Egypt’s Modernization Program has been changed to the end of 2018 instead of 2022. Egypt’s Modernization Program for the oil and gas industry is a unique, overhaul transformation plan that the Oil Ministry designed to unlock all the potential the country has to boost development and enhance the economic picture.

The plan to rationalize the energy sector bears within itself an ambition for Egypt to become regional oil and gas hub within the next five years.