Egypt is set to receive the first shipment of 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil next week. Head of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), Abed Ezz El Regal, said that the barrels have been loaded onto the ship and mobilised from the port of Basra en route to an Egyptian port and are set to arrive on Saturday. He told Daily News Egypt that the shipments will be received according to a timetable every month, where 12 million barrels will be received this year. Payment for the shipments will be facilitated. He explained that the Egyptian-Iraqi agreement for the import of oil was not a substitute for shipments from Saudi Aramco, noting that the government agreement provides a grace period up to 90 days before payment of dues. Ezz El Regal stressed that Saudi Aramco shipments are being received regularly according to the contracts. Saudi Aramco announced in mid-March that it was resuming the supply of its oil shipments of 700,000 tonnes per month to Egypt, following a five-month suspension, which forced Egypt to look for other alternatives and sign the agreement with Iraq. Saudi Aramco signed an agreement with EGPC to supply petroleum products for five years, funded by the Saudi Development Fund, as part of a package of agreements signed between Egypt and Saudi Arabia in March 2016, worth $25bn in total, according to remarks by Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr. The agreement states that Egypt buys from Aramco 400,000 tonnes of gas oil (diesel), 200,000 tonnes of gasoline, and 100,000 tonnes of fuel oil on a line of credit at an interest rate of 2% to be repaid in 15 years. The cabinet had approved the agreement of importing 12 million barrels of oil from Iraq, which will be divided into 1 million barrels per month. The oil will be refined in Egyptian refineries and injected into the domestic market. The Ministry of Petroleum renewed two commercial contracts for the supply of petroleum products and crude oil, with KPC, for three years, in quantities of up to 1.5 million tonnes per year of petroleum products, and 2 million barrels of crude oil per month.
