Egypt, Saudi Arabia set to ink petroleum, investment deals

Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr will sign an agreement on Sunday with Saudi Arabian parties for the provision of petroleum to Cairo for coming five years.

The signing is expected to take place in Riyadh during the fifth and final meeting of the Saudi-Egyptian Coordination Council today (March 20), to be headed by Nasr and the Saudi Minister of Finance Ibrahim Bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf.

During the meeting, the attendees will also sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote Saudi investments in Egypt.

Nasr will also sign a $1.5 billion agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) to fund “the development of the Sinai peninsula”, including building a university and residential and agriculture projects. The international cooperation minister will also negotiate a SR450 million agreement from the SFD to fund to be applied to the upgrading of Qasr El-Ainy hospital.

In December, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman gave orders to increase the kingdom’s investments in Egypt to over SR30 billion ($8 billion) to secure Egypt’s petroleum demands for the next five years, and to increase Saudi traffic in the Suez Canal.

Saudi-Egyptian Coordination Council was established with the aim of implementing Saudi Arabia’s investment pledges.

In previous meetings, Egypt presented a number of projects in different fields to Saudi Arabia along with completed feasibility studies.

The Saudi Arabian investment funds chose to invest SR30 million in the fields of housing, tourism, agriculture, and energy over the next five years.

In September, the Ministry of Petroleum and Saudi Aramco Company signed a contract to facilitate approximately $1.4 billion for the supply of shipments of petroleum products over a period of three months.

The value of the contract will be paid a year after the confirmation of the contract.

Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait provided Egypt with $24 billion in aid after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Saudi Arabia increased its raw production to 10.308 million barrels during the second half of 2015 to enhance its share in the Asian market and nourish local power plants and refineries.

Saudi Arabia provided approximately $2 billion in support of Egypt’s foreign exchange reserves during the Sharm El-Sheikh economic summit in March, in addition to allocating another $2 billion for development projects.

The trade exchange between Egypt and Saudi Arabia during the first eight months of 2015 amounted to about $3.7 billion.