The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has paid EGP 1b to Italian Eni, as part of the outstanding dues for for the company’s equity production. An official with Eni stated that the company received part of its money in EGP and used it in paying for local contractors, reported Al Borsa.

The Egyptian government paid the EGP 1b at the beginning of November before the EGP devaluation along with paying several amounts in EGP  to other oil and gas companies. Furthermore, the Minister of Petroleum, Tarek El Molla, added that Egypt’s foreign debt to international oil companies (IOC) had reached $3.6b at the end of September 2016.

In related news, El Molla had headed a meeting of Zohr’s Development Higher Committee with the aim to follow up on the progress of work in Zohr field and ensure that it meets designated timeframes. During the meeting El Molla had stated that Eni was developing  Zohr field as the drilling of the sixth well had ended with promising results. In addition, the drilling operations of the seventh well started as the final stage of the accelerated development project which aims to produce 1bcf/d of gas by the end of 2017 to increase to 2.7bcf/d of gas by the end of 2019 when the development plan is completed.