Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi plans to meet with the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdul Aziz in February to deliberate on the details of the supply of petroleum products to Egypt for the next five years.

Speaking in a statement, a senior official in the petroleum sector stated that the agreement for the supply was concluded at the beginning of January. He noted that the agreement is to take the form of a commercial contract, which must be repeated every three months. The agreement also makes provision for payment facilitations and financing at a low interest rate.

A data from the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) revealed that Egypt market’s per month requirements are estimated at 500,000 tonnes of diesel, 300,000 tonnes of butane, 150,000 tonnes of gasoline, and 500,000 tonnes of fuel oil.

The corporation had signed an agreement which included payment facilitations for three years, with an interest rate of only 3% with Saudi Aramco, to meet Egypt’s requirements for petroleum products from September to November. The deal included the supply of 500,000 tonnes of diesel, 220,000 tonnes of fuel oil, and 150,000 tonnes of gasoline, every month.

According to Daily News Egypt, Saudi Aramco’s profit from the agreement was supposed to be at $1.4bn, but the decline in the price of oil in the global market had reduced the value to $1.1bn.

Anita Fatunji