The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation is set to pose a tender to supply all needs of the domestic market of petroleum products in January, replacing the Saudi Aramco shipments, which were halted since October. A government source told Daily News Egypt that Aramco's contract to supply 700,000 tonnes of petroleum products per month was stopped, with no talks of resuming it. He added that Egypt is now on the lookout for an alternative source of fuel with a facilitated payment option. "The Egyptian government considers the contract to be terminated," he stressed. "The Saudi side only notified us with halting the shipments for an indefinite period, providing no explanation." Aramco has supplied Egypt with petroleum product shipments valued at $1.2bn over four months starting from May. The supply included 400,000 tonnes of diesel, 200,000 tonnes of gasoline, and 100,000 tonnes of fuel oil per month. The source said that the Ministry of Petroleum has seen progress with a number of negotiations with Arab countries. EGPC has also concluded a deal with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) on the supply of 2m barrels of crude oil for refining in the Middle East Oil Refinery (MIDOR) and El Nasr Refinery. Moreover, EGPC also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SOCAR that included support for joint cooperation in a number of key areas in the oil and gas industry with the aim of expanding the prospects of cooperation in order to achieve mutual benefits. The MoU includes the cooperation and partnership for the implementation of many oil projects on the long term, and cooperation in infrastructure and liquefied gas field, as well as cooperation in the field of petrochemicals and the application of a raw material trade scheme. The Ministry of Petroleum has been in negotiations with Iraq to import shipments of crude oil for refining in Egypt to activate the agreement signed in March, and pumping petroleum products in the local market for consumers with long payment facilities.
