Sisi's government clings to debt to pull Egypt's Oil & Gas from the brink

The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), the country’s state-owned oil company, is in the market for a $1.5bn loan. It will use the funds to reduce its vast debts to international energy companies operating in Egypt for unpaid-for petroleum during the three years of civil unrest.

EGPC had accumulated $6.3 billion in outstanding arrears, of which $1.5 billion was paid back in December 2013. Growing wary with the country, big firms such as the UK’s BG Group, BP and Houston-based Apache Corporation have reduced investments there. Yet since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government was elected in June, it has sought to stabilize the sector and win over foreign players by promising their full remuneration. Can Sisi’s regime signal a new dawning of the Egyptian energy industry, or is it too little too late?