CAIRO, April 30 (Reuters) - Egypt's debts to foreign oilcompanies operating in the country rose to $5.7 billion by theend of March, the head of the state-run oil company toldReuters, up $800 million from the government's last reportedfigure despite recent repayments.
Money owed to foreign oil majors including BP and BGGroup totalled $4.9 billion in December, indicatingCairo's debts to the firms continue to mount despite efforts torestore investor confidence by paying down the arrears.
"Arrears to foreign oil firms in Egypt reached $5.7 billionby the end of March," Tarek El Molla, chairman of EgyptianGeneral Petroleum Corp, said late on Tuesday.
Egypt has delayed payments to oil and gas firms as itseconomy has been hammered by almost three years of instabilitysince a popular uprising ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.Some of the debts were incurred before the revolt.
Egypt paid back $1.5 billion at the end of last year, asignal that the government is trying to get firms investingagain in extraction and exploration, badly needed to helpaddress a severe energy crunch.
Molla did not say how or when the country plans to repay therest of the debt. Oil Minister Sherif Ismail said in Februarythe government hoped to schedule repayments of around $3.5billion that will be completed by 2016.
Ismail said last week that Egypt would pay an additional $1billion to the firms within two months.
Energy prices in Egypt are among the lowest in the world,and the cash-strapped government spends more than a fifth of itsbudget on keeping them down. Artificially low prices providelittle incentive for Egyptians to curb consumption. (Reporting by Adel Abdelrahman; Writing by Asma Alsharif;Editing by Maggie Fick and Dale Hudson)