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Egypt can pay in local currency: Dana Gas

Dana Gas offered to allow Egypt to pay back part of the $290 million owed to the company in local currency to make it easier for the state to find the money, needed by the producer to sustain output.

Dana is waiting for a reply to its proposal that the nation pay 65 per cent of the dollar debt in Egyptian pounds, chief executive officer Patrick Allman-Ward told reporters in Sharjah.

The temporary measure would let Egypt retain foreign-exchange reserves and give Dana currency to pay local costs, he added.

The company, based in the UAE, increased output about six per cent this year from 2012’s 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, Investor Relations Director Robinder Singh said. Egyptian output reached a two-year high of 41,500 barrels in August, while the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq was flat.

Dana is talking with the Kurdish government to recover $430 million of receivables, said Allman-Ward.