Egyptian Petroleum Minister, Tarek El Molla (photo), has announced on Tuesday, that the country will be procuring refined oil products from the international spot market after Saudi Aramco decided to stop the shipment of products indefinitely. He declared this on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).

According to El-Molla, Egypt is meeting with producers and traders, and anybody interested in offering trustworthy terms would be able to make a deal with the country.
“What we are doing now we are getting from the international trading market,” he said adding that Egypt is not necessarily looking for longer term deals.

“Depending on pricing and opportunities ... We have been getting refined products in the market anyways even when we had Aramco we were still importing from the market. You know sometimes spot can be cheaper. It is not a matter of replacing (Saudi supplies), it is having reliable better terms, whoever can offer us that we will have a deal with,” he added.

Saudi Arabia informed Egypt on Monday that shipments of oil products under the $23 billion aid arrangement have been postponed for an indefinite period. In April, the Kingdom agreed to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products every month for five years but the shipments stopped coming in early October.

El Molla noted that Egypt intends to stop the importation of liquefied natural gas by 2021. “We will eventually resume exports as we have some commitments to export and contracts to honor,” he told Reuters.

Anita Fatunji