Egyptian Oil Minister, Tarek El-Molla (photo), on Tuesday revealed that no confirmation has been received yet as regards when Saudi Arabia’s will recommence the supply of petroleum to the country.

This is coming after supplies were postponed at the beginning of this month.

“The contract is in effect for five years so whether it's interrupted for a week or a month or two or three the contract is in effect and still on,” El-Molla said adding that there was no confirmation about whether or not the aid would resume next month.

In March, Saudi Arabia agreed to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products per month for five years under a $23 billion deal signed between Saudi Aramco and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) but Egypt stopped receiving its aid some weeks ago, Reuters reports.

The spokesman for the Egyptian Oil Ministry, Hamdy Abdel-Aziz, on October 10, 2016, said that, Aramco officially informed Cairo that the agreed oil products for October will not be supplied. He stated that the reason might be technical or logistical stressing that the Saudi company did not cancel the $23 billion deal.

Anita Fatunji