Egypt is aiming to pay $750 Million of arrears owed to foreign oil companies by the end 2017, Egypt's Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla said during a local TV phone interview on Tuesday evening.

Egypt paid $2.2 billion in arrears last June to international oil companies operating in the country, leaving $2.3 billion remaining, the petroleum ministry said.

That payment followed a February statement by El-Molla announcing that the ministry was drafting a schedule to repay arrears to international oil companies.

Egypt has pledged to eliminate its arrears to foreign oil and gas companies by the end of June 2019 and to not accumulate new arrears, according to an IMF report released earlier this year.

Egypt began cutting subsidies on fuel and electricity in July 2014 as part of economic reforms aimed at curtailing its budget deficit and curbing growth in domestic energy consumption.