Egypt has cleared approximately $5 billion of the arrears due to its foreign partners in the oil sector, significantly reducing the sector's debt, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly said during the Cabinet's weekly meeting.
Egypt's total arrears for International Oil Companies have dropped from a mid-2024 peak of $6.1 billion and are expected to reach$1.2 billion by the end of June 2026, which is the normal rate, according to Madbouly.
Hassan El-Khatib, Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, met with the CEOs of Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and Greece’s Public Power Corporation (PPC) on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos to accelerate Egypt’s transition into a regional green energy and water desalination hub. The Saudi group currently operates two solar plants in Egypt with a combined capacity of 350 megawatts (MW), which the Minister noted are performing beyond expectations. Parallel to these operations, the 1.1-gigawatt (GW) Shams solar project.
Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GUPCO) has brought on stream the development well, Al Wasl-4 in North Safa field. The well is producing around 2,250 (bb/d) of crude oil and approximately 1.3 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) of natural gas, contributing to rise in crude output of GUPCO reaching 65,000 bbl/d. The well supports the company’s strategy to maximize recovery from mature assets through integrated appraisal, development drilling, and optimization of remaining reserves.
The Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Hassan El-Khatib highlighted that Egypt possesses enormous potential in the field of renewable energy, especially solar energy, where approximately 700 to 900 gigawatts (GW) can be generated from the Western Desert alone. This came during his participation in a high-level panel discussion as part of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Additionally, in an interview with Bloomberg, on the sidelines of the forum, El-Khatib revealed that recent energy pricing restructures have successfully addressed long-standing fiscal imbalances.
Karim Badawi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, met with Frank Wetzel, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany to discuss means to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the energy sector. Both sides reaffirmed the depth of Egyptian-German relations at various levels and stressed the importance of further developing and strengthening ties to expand cooperation in gas, renewable and green energy, technology transfer, and human capacity building.
Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Hassan El-Khatib met with a delegation from Evolve Holding and its partner, Stonex, to discuss expanding their investments in Egypt’s precious metals sector, according to a Cabinet statement. El-Khatib emphasised the strategic importance of the sector, noting that Egypt’s gold exports have surged to reach $6 billion.
PetroGulf Misr has successfully implemented an advanced drilling model at the GNN-16 well in the Gulf of Suez, reducing operational costs by $700,000 and shortening the drilling timeline by 5.5 days, according to a Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (MoMPR) statement.
Dana Gas, the Middle East's leading private natural gas company, has drilled four wells in Egypt throughout 2025 and completed a workover program across three additional wells, boosting the total production of its Egyptian activities to 27 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) of gas by the end of the year, alongside an uplift in reserves, noted a press release by the company.
The company said that it plans to drill seven more wells in 2026 as part of the program, with the next one—Daffodil—set to spud in January. Further evaluations are ongoing to pinpoint additional rework opportunities for 2026, it added.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has chaired the first meeting of the Supreme Committee for Gold, outlining a strategic shift to transform Egypt from a raw gold exporter into a global industrial hub, according to a Cabinet statement.
central highlight of the meeting was the review of a proposed national gold refinery project. The facility will specialize in purifying raw gold to international standards for trading and export.
Pharaonic Petroleum Company (PhPC) confirmed plans to fast-track drilling activities to bring a new development well onstream in the fourth quarter of 2026, with an expected initial production rate of approximately 40 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas, according to Chairman Hossam Zaki.
