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Saudi Aramco resumes oil shipments to Egypt

March 16, 2017 at 2:00 pm

Egypt Oil Minister Tariq Al-Molla said yesterday that Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Aramco will resume supplying his country with oil products five months after halting deliveries.

“It was agreed that the Saudi Arabian side would resume Aramco’s shipping of oil products as per the commercial contract signed between the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Aramco,” Al-Molla said in a statement.

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The two sides are working to set up a timetable for the resumption of the shipments, the statement added.

Last October, Aramco abruptly halted exports of petroleum products to Egypt, without giving any reasons. Al-Molla: “During the last period there was communication between the two sides to resume shipments.”

According to Aramco, the postponement of shipments was due to commercial conditions on its part amidst changes in global oil market prices and Saudi Arabia’s reduced oil production levels, as well as routine maintenance to refineries.

Saudi Arabia agreed in April last year to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products a month for a period of five years.

Read: Saudi ARAMCO suspends oil supply to Egypt

Saudi did not give a reason for the halt in deliveries but observers believe this was due to the political dispute between the two countries. Ministers denied this.