The Egyptian government plans to repay a part of its dues—worth $500m—to a number of foreign companies operating in the local petroleum sector in the next month.

Sources at the Ministry of Petroleum told Daily News Egypt that the government will repay a part of its dues—totaling $3.5bn—after obtaining the third tranche of the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AFDB) loans—estimated at $1bn and $500m, respectively.

They added that the government is keen to repay its dues to the foreign partners, so as to enable them to continue their exploration activities in the country.

During his participation in the 9th Mediterranean Offshore Conference (MOC), Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Tarek El Molla expected to complete the repayment of half of the ministry’s dues to foreign companies within a few weeks.

Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr said that Egypt has received $500m as the second tranche of the AFDB loan worth $1.5bn.

Egypt has also received the second tranche of the World Bank’s loan totaling $3bn.

Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy said in a previous statement that the government is keen to repay its dues to the foreign oil companies, as part of the framework of the economic reform programme agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

On the other hand, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has renewed two contracts to import crude oil and petroleum products for the next three years from Kuwait.

The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) agreed with the EGPC to supply Egypt with 1.5m barrels of petroleum products per year and 2m barrels of crude oil per month. The EGPC said the deal offers a grace period of 180 days to pay for the shipments of petroleum products and 270 days for crude oil.