Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, said that Egypt may announce new discoveries of natural gas near the Zohr field by the second half of this year, which will bring country on track to achieve self-sufficiency by 2019, Bloomberg reported.

According to Mohamed El Masry, the Chairman of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), Egypt is set to begin exporting natural gas in the second half of 2019, Daily News Egypt informed.

El Masry also pointed out that Egypt consumes 5.2bcf/d of gas, while production amounts to 4.2bcf/d, adding that a plan is in place to boost production to 5bcf/d as soon as Zohr field production is linked to the national grid, which is expected by the end of the year.