Egypt is committed to repaying the $3.5bn it owes in arrears to foreign oil companies but a foreign currency shortage has made the drawing down of those debts more difficult, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told Reuters yesterday.
"We are committed and we will continue decreasing the numbers as we have done over the last three years," El Molla said.
Insufficient foreign currency reserves mean that the repayment schedule was taking time, he said.
He said, however, Cairo was making monthly payments to foreign operators, enabling it to prevent overall debts from growing further.
El Molla said Egypt would resort to the spot market and to inter-governmental deals to close the gap between its gas production and consumption through imports of LNG.
