Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum owes $1.35b in outstanding dues to Royal Dutch Shell. This is an increase from the $1.3b owed in October for Shell’s equity production from Rashid and Burullus fields’ concessions, reported Daily News Egypt.

Accordingly, Shell had decided to delay implementing phase 9B in Burullus field, until the Egypt repays financial dues.

A source stated that the ministry had promised its foreign partners to pay part of the financial dues during 2016, after failing to adhere to the previous set deadlines. The source further added that the Egyptian government acquires around $50m of the Shell’s gas share of Rashid and Burullus, and has not repaid it because of the USD shortage in the country.

Thus, the Ministry of Petroleum agreed to allow Shell to export a liquefied gas shipment every 20 days through the EDCO liquefaction plant, and to increase gas quantities in case natural gas is available in the national grid.

In related news, the Minister of Petroleum, Tarek El Molla had stated before that the Egypt’s total dues to foreign partners had reached $3.6b.