The Saudi national oil company Aramco has informed Egypt that it has suspended its oil shipments until further notice, Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla said on Monday.

 

Saudi Arabia agreed to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products per month for five years under a $23 billion deal between Saudi Aramco and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) signed earlier this year.

 

Egypt stopped receiving its allocations in October.

 

"They did not give us a reason. They only informed the authority about halting shipments of petroleum products until further notice," El-Molla was quoted by Reuters as saying during the International Energy Forum held in Abu-Dhabi.

 

Earlier on Monday, the Egyptian petroleum ministry denied reports of an official visit to negotiate new oil deals in Tehran, after Saudi Arabia suspended its oil agreement.

 

Last month, the petroleum minister said that the country’s deal with Aramco is still in effect, insisting that its decision to suspend oil supplies to Egypt in October has no “political dimensions.”