Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Karim Badawi, told the Mediterranean Offshore Conference and Exhibition, MOC 2026, that the government has settled all outstanding dues to its exploration and production partners, arrears that had reached about 6.1 billion dollars in June 2024 and were brought to zero by June 2026. Company representatives at the conference said the settlement had strengthened confidence in Egypt’s investment climate and supported plans to direct new capital into developing discoveries and connecting them to the national gas network.
The arrears were the sector’s binding constraint. Unpaid bills to international oil companies accumulated through the pandemic, the Ukraine war shock and a foreign reserve squeeze, and Badawi said the accumulation had a direct impact on investment flows. The repayment was funded in part after the 35 billion dollar Ras El Hekma agreement with the United Arab Emirates in February 2024, and was completed in instalments, with the final payment made on June 10, 2026, ahead of the government’s target.
The payoff has already been converted into commitments. The government has announced investment pledges exceeding 19 billion dollars over three years: 8 billion dollars from Italy’s Eni, 5 billion dollars from BP, 4 billion dollars from Apache of the United States and 2 billion dollars from UAE based Arcius Energy. Between July 2024 and June 2026 Egypt brought 591 new wells into production and made 113 discoveries, Badawi said, and the petroleum sector returned to growth in the third quarter of fiscal 2025/26 for the first time since early fiscal 2023/24, with crude output above 540,000 barrels a day.
Alongside the conference, Badawi and Cyprus’s energy minister Michael Damianos witnessed the initialling of a financial framework agreement for developing the Cypriot Aphrodite gas field and connecting it to Egypt, where it would use Egyptian receiving, processing and liquefaction capacity at Idku and Damietta. The Cronos field, held by an Eni and TotalEnergies consortium, reached final investment decision in July, targeting output equal to about 2.8 million tonnes a year of LNG from 2028. Egypt is using cleared arrears and its existing LNG infrastructure to sell itself as the eastern Mediterranean’s processing hub, and the Aphrodite framework is the first test of whether partners will route gas through it.