Egypt receives first oil product shipments from Saudi Aramco: minister

Egypt has received two oil product shipments from Saudi Arabian state oil company Aramco on Friday, Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla announced Saturday in a phone interview with local television channel CBC.

Aramco will send two more oil shipments by end of this March, the minister added, saying that the value of the Saudi shipments would range between $320 million and $340 million per month.

There will be a five-year grace period before the Egyptian government would start paying for Aramco shipments, el-Molla stated, saying his country had resumed shipment deal with Saudi Arabia under favourable conditions.

Egyptian Petroleum Ministry announced a week earlier that Saudi Aramco would resume oil product shipments to Egypt some six months after halting them suddenly.

The ministry said in a statement that it was working with Aramco on a timetable for the resumption of shipments and that the reasons behind the October cut-off were purely commercial.

“It was agreed that the Saudi Arabian side would resume Aramco’s shipping of oil products as per the commercial contract signed between the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Aramco,” the statement said.