The drop in the oil price has a few implications for Egypt. Among the “positive” consequences noted by commentators is the fact that Egypt will be paying less for imports, which means the budget allocated for purchasing energy will create a surplus of funds (of course, they could just import more and create a surplus of energy, but why think ahead?).
The decreased price of oil will also mean that Egypt will have to give away even more oil than anticipated in order to pay back loans taken out to service Egypt’s debt to foreign energy companies. Through a somewhat complex arrangement, the loans were guaranteed by predicted future sales of oil, which means more oil will have to be sold internationally at the new lower prices in order to meet the monthly repayments on the loans.
The Gulf states will be less willing to bear the burden of funding Sisi now that their single item economy has lost about half its value. This makes the Economic Summit in March all the more important for the survival of the Coup, and all the more important for the opposition to disrupt.
The ideal way to ensure the failure of this summit is to make sure that it is cancelled long before it takes place. Create uncertainty and loss for foreign investors and multinational corporations from now, and you can derail the summit before it ever starts.