Egypt Repays $2.1 Bln To Foreign Oil Firms

Egypt has paid off $2.1 billion of its debt to foreign oil and gas companies and $200 million owed to petroleum products suppliers, the ministry of petroleum announced in a statement.

The payment brings down the debt owed to foreign firms to LE3.1 billion, the ministry added.

Egypt’s minister of Petroleum said the ministry is seeking to find solutions to pay off the debt which accumulated over the years as a result of buying foreign partner’s share of oil and gas to provide for local demands which negatively affected oil and gas exploration and development and led to the delay of some mega projects to increase production.

The ministry targets to decrease the debt owed to foreign oil firms to an appropriate level to encourage firms to invest and intensify research and exploration and speed up the development of exploration to increase production and fill the current gap, in order to secure Egypt’s needs of petroleum products and natural gas, it added.

Source : Arab finance