Egypt denies petroleum minister visit to Tehran 

Egypt’s petroleum ministry denied reports about an alleged by Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla to Tehran for talks about purchasing oil from Iran after the Saudi state-owned company Aramco announced in October that it has suspended its oil shipments to Egypt.

The ministry’s spokesperson said that the minister is currently in the UAE where he attending the annual AbuDhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference.

Molla took part in two of the conference’s sessions on Monday, the ministry’s spokesperson added.

During a visit by King Salman to Cairo in April, Saudi Arabia agreed to provide Egypt, a net importer of oil, with 700,000 tons of oil products monthly for five years.

But following an Egyptian vote for a Russian-backed draft resolution at the UN Security Council in October, Saudi’s Aramco informed Egypt’s state oil company, the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), that it would halt the supplies of refined oil products to the country.

The ministry denied on Monday reports about receiving any more notices from Aramco on the halt of oil shipments to Egypt, saying that Aramco only informed EGPC in October that shipments will be suspended “until further notice”, and nothing new has emerged in this regard.