In a surprise visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday, the ministers of Oil, Finance, and Investment held meetings with Emirati officials to discuss new mechanisms through which Gulf countries could support the Egyptian economy. The visit included a discussion of bilateral cooperation between the UAE and Egypt in the areas of research, exploration and development of the crude oil, gas, petrochemical and mineral fields. The discussion also reviewed the current position of new joint investment projects and different avenues of investment that had been taken previously, added Ismail. Ismail noted, in a statement to the Daily News Egypt, that the UAE has expressed its willingness to invest in the petroleum sector and is currently choosing between projects that can be started in the coming period. He also added that there are ongoing discussions regarding the possibilities for the Arab Petroleum Pipelines Company (SUMED) to construct new pipelines and depots. Visits between officials to the UAE and Egypt will continue regularly until an agreement on joint projects between the two countries in the oil sector is reached, according to Ismail. The former government also presented several projects in different sectors to the UAE for investment purposes, before President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi took power. Amongst these projects were plans to build refineries Ain Sokhna, South Sinai, Alexandria, and Said governorate, as well as petrochemical, mineral resources and exploration projects. According to Ismail, there were no discussions with the Emirati side regarding petroleum grants for the current fiscal year. Egypt has received grants for oil worth $9.8bn from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait during the last fiscal year, which included shipments of fuel oil, diesel, LPG and gasoline.
