Egypt has agreed to pay $1.5 billion out of the $6 billion owed to foreign oil companies, with the announcement aimed at encouraging renewed investment in the industry.

“There’s an approval to pay $1.5 billion,” Egypt’s Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi told an investment cohort organized to attract investments from Gulf Arab states.

Financial disclosures by international oil firms operating in Egypt including BP PLC, BG Group, Edison SpA and TransGlobe Energy revealed the North African country owed them in excess of $5.2 billion as at December 2012, and despite continuous promises by the government to repay the debt, it has been unable to fulfil its obligations.

However, with the political tension that has trimmed non oil revenues such as Tourism inflows, which accounts for 11 percent of GDP, 40 percent of non-commodity export and 19 percent of the country’s foreign currency revenues, the pressure to attract oil-driven investments has heightened.

Moves such as the repayment of debts should restore investors’ confidence and rekindle business interests as the precarious situation in the North African country lingers.