Algeria plans to increase natural gas output by 13% by 2019 to reverse a decline in energy production in recent years that has hit its export earnings and spending policy, the energy ministry said according to Reuters.

The required investment was estimated at $40b, it said in the latest edition of its inhouse magazine Algeria Energy. The article gave few details on how or where it would increase output.

An OPEC member and a major gas supplier to Europe, Algeria relies heavily on energy revenues, which make up 60% of its budget and account for 95% of its exports.

Earnings from oil and gas exports are expected to fall 50%, to $34b this year.

The government earlier this month said oil and gas export volumes dropped 8.9% in the first quarter of 2015. Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said days before that the government will cut spending by 9% in 2016 due to a decline in earnings after the drop in global crude oil prices.

Algeria’s El-Khabar newspaper published recently that the US secretary of energy warned gas prices are not expected to rise this year and Algeria is expected to suffer even more after the United States announcement that it will resume exporting liquefied natural gas to compete with Qatar, Russia and Algeria, Middle East Monitor reported.