Egypt's oil minister Tarek el-Molla delivers a speech at the Mediterranean dialogues conference in Rome on Nov. 23, 2018.Egypt’s arrears to foreign oil companies declined to $900 million at the end of June from $1.2 billion a year ago, the petroleum minister said on Thursday, adding that the remaining amount would be paid soon.
Arrears to foreign oil companies accumulated after the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak and reached $6.3 billion in the 2011/2012 fiscal year.They have steadily declined since 2014 as Egypt sought to become a regional energy hub. Egypt owed foreign oil firms $2.4 billion in June 2017, falling to $1.048 million in December.