The Egyptian minister of petroleum said that Egypt will achieve self-sufficiency in natural gas by the end of 2018, according to a statement. Tareq El Molla added is his statement that the government was planning to achieve self-sufficiency by 2020-2021 but accelerating development plans will help achieve this target sooner.

According to El Molla, the ministry is targeting an increase in natural gas production by 1 billion cubic feet before the end of 2017, as “Zohr” gas field will begin operating, besides 4.4 billion cubic feet that are currently being pumped into the national gas grid.
The minister also expects natural gas production to increase by 500 million cubic feet per day by mid-2017 from fields in north of Alexandria as well as “Noras” field which production has reached around 870 million cubic feet.

The increase in production, with new gas fields, will help lower liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, thus easing the pressure of foreign currency reserves, according to El Molla.