Petroleum ministry's debt down to $3.2B in 2017

CAIRO - 31 December 2017: Outstanding petroleum receivables owed to foreign companies dwindled to $ 2.3 billion by the end of June 2017, Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla announced in a Sunday report on the year's activities of the ministry.

Molla explained that the figure is well less than $6.3 billion recorded in 2013.

The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) repaid $ 2.2 billion to international oil companies in June.

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”.

The government was scheduled to pay a sum of $ 1.5 billion in oil arrears over 2017, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Tarek Amer said in previous statements.