Egypt considers renewing Iraqi crude deal

CAIRO – 25 September 2017: The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) is planning to renew its contract with Iraqi state oil marketing company, SOMO, to receive 12 million barrels of crude oil from Basr field for another year.

EGPC chairman Abed Ezz El-Regal said in a Monday press statement that renewing the contract will happen after paying the value of the shipments already received.

Under an agreement reached in April in Baghdad, 12 million barrels of oil shipments are to be delivered to Egypt from SOMO.

All shipments are expected to be received before the end of 2017. The agreement, which has a 90-day grace period, is subject to renewal.

Due to a shortfall in oil and natural gas production, Egypt has been importing crude and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from several sources in the past few years.

To secure market needs, Egypt imports crude from Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) under a three-year agreement to supply 1.5 million tons per year, which are refined in Egyptian refineries.

It further imports refined petroleum products from Saudi Arabia at 700,000 tons per month under a five-year agreement signed with the Saudi company Aramco in April 2016.