Italian firm Eni’s discovery of the giant Zohr gas field in the Egyptian deepwater Mediterranean last August has sparked an upturn in exploration interest. But this has yet to translate into action – the current number of offshore drilling rigs, at six, is down from just a month ago.
One of the key risks of doing business in Egypt is late payments, sometimes extremely so. While Egypt did cut its dues from a peak of $6bn in 2013 to $3bn at the end of 2015, the sums owed have since edged back up to $3.2bn, according to an oil ministry official quoted by Reuters. (CONTINUED - 1846 WORDS)
