Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, is currently on a visit to Iran for talks on an oil deal, sources close to his delegation said.
The visit is coming not long after Saudi Arabia stopped its oil cargoes to the country.

Saudi Arabia informed Egypt that it will be halting shipments of petroleum products to Egypt until further notice, an Egyptian official said on Monday.

According to the official, Aramco did not give a reason for stopping the shipments.
“We have launched tenders to cover the needs for November,” the official said.

El-Molla’s visit to Iran is expected to bring about a similar agreement with the one signed with Saudi Arabia, making it easier for future oil supplies.

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 the aid.

Egypt has since worked to secure new energy sources. Late last month, El Molla travelled to Iraq for talks on increasing oil co-operation. The visit resulted in the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Kuwait Energy Plc giving EGPC a 20% participating interest in its Siba field in Iraq.

It also signed a memorandum of understanding last week with Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR for up to 2 million barrels of crude oil.

Anita Fatunji