Egypt is set to receive Iraq's first crude oil shipment on Tuesday, amounting to 2 million barrels, as part of a deal with the Iraqi state oil marketing company SOMO. "The crude shipments will arrive in Egypt within the next 24 hours to be sent to local refineries to process the crude oil into refined oil products to serve the local market." Abed Ezz El Regal, Chairman of the state-run Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), told Amwal Al Ghad on Monday. Egypt will have a three-month grace period to pay for the Iraqi shipments, Ezz El Regal said without mentioning the value of the first shipment. Under the terms of the year-long agreement, which was reached earlier in April by Baghdad and Cairo, Iraq will sell 12 million barrels of oil to Egypt. Egypt has been struggling to procure oil and natural gas for domestic market needs from several sources in the past few years. However, recent rises in natural gas discoveries and projected finds in the country promise to help Egypt cut down on its liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports in the coming year. Egypt, the eighth largest importer of LNG in the world, has been holding talks with its LNG suppliers to defer contracted shipments this year to cut back on purchases in 2018 and achieve self-sufficiency in the alternative fuel source by the end of that year.
