Saudi Aramco to resume oil shipments to Egypt

State-owned Saudi Aramco will resume shipments of oil products to Egypt after about six months of stopping them, Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum said in a statement on Wednesday.

Egyptian petroleum minister Tarek El-Molla said the ministry was working with the Saudi oil giant on a timetable to resume shipments, adding that Aramco’s suspension of shipments was for purely commercial reasons.

Relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia have soured in recent months after Egypt voted in favor of a UN resolution in October, which was backed by Russia but opposed by Saudi Arabia.

Signs of political disagreement between the countries became apparent after state-run Saudi Aramco halted shipments of oil products to Egypt in October without providing a reason. The suspension forced the North African nation to resort to new tenders that month in order to purchase fuel needed for local consumption.

In January this year, an Egyptian court rejected a government appeal to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, a verdict that deepened tensions between two of the Arab World’s largest economies.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has previously said the islands of Tiran and Sanafir always belonged to the kingdom, and were merely under Egyptian administration for a short period of time. His comments stirred nationwide controversy among Egyptians, who accused him of selling Egyptian land to Saudi Arabia.