Kuwait’s cabinet has approved an extension of its oil exports to Egypt beginning from January, with an extra time of nine months, according to ministerial sources. The oil-rich country is to provide Egypt with about 2 million barrels of crude oil per month at the global price, the sources said, not giving more details.

Egypt in 2014, entered into a long-term agreement with Kuwait to import two million barrels of crude oil and 1.2 million tonnes of petroleum products per month, Ahram news reports. This deal is meant to fill the gap in Egypt’s petroleum needs, caused after Saudi Aramco stopped its oil shipments to the country for two months.

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 Aramco and EGPC. But the North African nation stopped receiving its allocations from Aramco in October.

Anita Fatunji