Iran says Egypt’s Molla not visiting Tehran
Iran has rejected reports over a surprise visit to Tehran by Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Tarek al-Molla.
Reports earlier said Molla plans to visit the Islamic Republic from Abu Dhabi where he was attending an oil conference on Sunday.
Reuters quoted unnamed officials in Cairo as saying that the Egyptian minister was going to strike new oil purchase deals with Iran.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA on Monday quoted an informed source from the country’s Ministry of Petroleum as saying that the Ministry was not informed about the visit.
Molla also later confirmed to Reuters that he was not going to Iran.
“No Iran visit. I am attending the conference,” he said.
Reports over the visit to Tehran by Egypt’s petroleum minister followed indications that Egypt is trying to replace Saudi Arabia with new energy suppliers.
This came after Riyadh suspend a crucial oil supply agreement with Cairo last month.
The Saudi deal was for 700,000 tons of oil products a month for five years.
Egypt has already signed a memorandum of understanding last week with Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR for up to 2 million barrels of crude oil.
Molla said last month it was unclear when the Saudi oil deliveries would resume and Saudi Arabia has provided no reason for their suspension of an oil supply deal with Egypt.
Reuters had quoted a source, who accompanied Molla to the airport before leaving for Abu Dhabi, as saying that the Egyptian petroleum minister was set to meet several senior Iranian officials to discuss the possibility of securing oil supplies from Tehran.
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