Egypt Pays $6.1 Billion Debt to Foreign Oil Firms While Floating Currency and Cutting State Energy Stakes

Egypt has paid all outstanding debts to foreign oil companies, Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Karim Badawi announced. 1 billion in arrears. The payment removes a barrier that had slowed new projects by Western majors.

Shell, Chevron, Eni, and BP are now positioned to increase investment. Egypt holds around 93 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves. S. Geological Survey estimates the Nile Delta Basin Province contains up to 286 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable gas.

Shell plans first gas from the Mina West field in the deepwater Northeast El Amriya concession in the Mediterranean Sea for the fourth quarter of 2026. Initial flow tests recorded 45 million standard cubic feet of gas per day and 1,000 barrels per day of condensates.

Phase 1 of the Mina West project is designed to deliver 160 million standard cubic feet of gas per day and 3,000 barrels per day of condensates into Egypt’s domestic grid.

Egypt sits astride the Suez Canal and the SUMED pipeline. It has become one of the West’s prime targets for replacement gas supplies after Russian flows ended following the 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. On 6 March 2024 the IMF allowed Egypt to expand its $8 billion financial support package.

The World Bank and the European Union later offered additional aid. Egypt has adopted measures to avoid another cycle of foreign-currency depletion and debt. These include abandoning the artificial peg of the Egyptian pound by the Central Bank of Egypt and reducing state ownership in energy projects to limit sovereign liability.

China and Russia are also seeking to expand their presence in Egypt’s energy sector.