Egypt clears all arrears for foreign oil and gas companies

His Excellency Eng. Karim Badawi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Egypt, announced that the country has paid all outstanding arrears to foreign oil and gas companies. 

This comes after the ministry had made the commitment in March this year, following H.E. Badawi’s remarks that the country was determined to deal with this issue at Egypt Energy Show 2025. Egypt had accumulated arrears of $6.1 billion by June 2024. 

However, the government began repaying these dues, which dropped to around $1.3 billion by December 2025. In May, Egypt made further payments of $714 million and then $440 million. The final settlement of $440 million was completed on 10 June. 

H.E. Badawi stated that “the accumulation of those arrears over previous years had had a direct impact on investment flows into the petroleum and gas sectors.”

Move seen as catalyst for investor confidence

He said that delays in E&P programmes, which consequently led to lower domestic production levels, widened the gap between production and consumption, and increased the country's import bill for meeting demands for petroleum products.

“It has removed one of the most significant barriers to investment inflows and accelerated development and production plans,” he said. 

Egypt has seen renewed interests in its oil and gas sector since 2024, particularly after a long period of falling production due to ageing infrastructure and underinvestments. 

Investor interest has surged in recent months, with Egypt securing over $19 billion in commitments from international oil companies for the next three years. These include $8 billion from Italy’s Eni, $5 billion from bp, $2 billion from the UAE’s Arcius Energy, and $4 billion from US-based Apache.

Sustained growth 

Since 2024, Egypt has focused on offshore exploration activities, and between mid-2024 and late-2025, Egypt recorded approximately 75 new oil and gas discoveries. During the same time period, it brought 383 wells online. 

Recognising that offshore fields are more challenging to drill and connect to the grid, H.E. Badawi said that these projects often require years of preparation and execution before reaching actual production.

But offshore development sets the stage for long-term energy growth, which could help Egypt catch up with its falling energy production. 

H.E. Badawi added that the industry is adopting new and innovative solutions to technical and operational challenges, and that “these efforts are helping to shorten the timeframes between discovery and production, maximising investment returns and enhancing domestic output and reduce the country's import bill.”