The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources will repay debts of $200 million to several international oil companies (IOCs) in June 2018, sources at the ministry told Al Borsa.

The government is attempting to repay the entirety of the country’s debt to IOCs in order to attract further foreign investment, and to increase oil and natural gas production rates.

The upcoming repayments will go to several IOCs including Royal Dutch Shell, Apache, BP, Eni and Dana Gas.

Egypt paid $200 million in arrears owed to foreign oil companies in January 2018, according to Egypt’s Minister of Finance, Amr El Garhy, Reuters reported.

The country owed foreign oil companies $2.4 billion at the end of June 2017, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El-Molla, said mid-January.