Egypt has paid about $5 billion in overdue bills to foreign oil and gas partners and aims to bring remaining arrears down to $1.2 billion by June 2026, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said.
Arrears stood at $6.1 billion on June 30, 2024, he said in a statement, adding the government was also meeting the partners’ monthly invoices.
A foreign currency shortage forced Egypt to delay payments to international oil companies operating in Egypt, slowing investment and contributing to a drop in gas output that forced it to rely heavily on imports from 2022, whether from neighbouring Israel or costly LNG cargoes.
But following a giant $35 billion deal in 2024 with the United Arab Emirates for the rights to develop a prime stretch of Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, Egypt started, paying back oil companies.
Egypt produced 3 635 million cubic meters of gas in October last year, up slightly from 3,525 million cubic meters in September but down from 3 851 million cubic meters in October 2024, according to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative.
–Reuters–
