Cairo – Mubasher: After Egypt had not received October allocations of petroleum aid from the Saudi Aramco, question marks rise about the $2-3 billion deposits that Egypt await from Saudi Arabia, according to a report by Pharos research.
On a hand, this move from Saudi Arabia is not "surprising", namely after going through austerity measures with expectations of weaker growth rate due to depressed oil prices, the research firm indicated.
But on the other hand, this move came in a critical time for Egypt as nothing shows " whether Egypt would still receive the USD 2-3 billion in deposit from Saudi Arabia within the next two weeks, which is much needed for NIR buildup and securing enough USD liquidity within the banking system pre-devaluation", the research agency said, adding this " might trigger delays to the IMF loan approval
In early October, Aramco notified the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) that the supply of refined oil products to Egypt would be halted without giving a timeline for the suspension or a reason. Yesterday, traders confirmed that October's share has not been received yet.
As a result, Egypt has increased tenders for buying fuel needed for local consumption with some plans to allocate more than $500 million for petroleum products amid a severe dollar shortage and growing arrears to oil producers.
