The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum currently owes Royal Dutch Shell $1.3b, up from $1.1b in July. These amounts are owed against the ministry’s purchases of  Shell’s production from Rasheed Concession and British Gas (BG)’s Burullus concession which Shell recently obtained, reported Al Borsa.

In June, the Egyptian ministry defaulted on $400m owed to Shell due to the lack of foreign currency in the country.  Accordingly, Shell decided to delayed phase 9B of Burullus until the Egyptian government cleared all outstanding financial balances.

It is noted that Egypt pays about $50m per month to purchase production from Rasheed and Burullus fields. However, actual payments to foreign partners are delayed due to USD shortages. Currently, the country’s total dues to foreign oil and gas companies are estimated at $3.5b, 45% of which are owed to BG. Although, the government had promised to pay a part of its outstanding dues within 2016.

In related news, the Egyptian ministry of petroleum agreed with Shell to re-price gas produced in phase 9C from Burulus field to be the same pricing as 9B phase gas, ranging between $2.5 and $5.88 per thermal unit.