Saudi Aramco stops oil supplies to Egypt

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Saudi Aramco has stopped all the shipments to Egypt indefinitely, Oilprice.com informs citing a spokesman for Egypt’s Oil Minister Tarek El Molla. The shipments of oil products from Saudi Arabia were a part of a US$23-billion aid deal between the two neighboring countries agreed this spring.

Last month the shipments were unexpectedly suspended without any explanatory information provided from Saudi Aramco. Still the Egyptian side insisted that the agreement was in force and shipments would be resumed soon.

Analysts suppose that the Saudis now decided to show their power after a member of El Molla’s delegation to the International Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi told journalists that the ministry was intending to visit Iran to discuss energy contracts.

A spokesman for the ministry neither approved nor denied whether this was indeed a planned move. He said, “They did not give us a reason. They only informed the authority about halting shipments of petroleum products until further notice.”

A spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry also said in an interview to Reuters that he did not know about such a visit.