Egypt may extend the ban of fuel oil imports beyond June 30 and rely instead on domestic supplies of natural gas for its power stations, an official at the state-run Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. said.

“This will depend on summertime demand for power,” Deputy Chief Executive Officer for Operations Mohamed Shoeib said in a phone interview from Cairo. “But our aim is to maximize the use of the locally produced natural gas in generating electricity.”

The North African country stopped imports of fuel oil in February after purchasing about 2 million metric tons of the oil product annually in the past, according to Shoeib.

Egypt has 78 trillion cubic feet (2.2 trillion cubic meters) of gas reserves and produces more than 6 billion cubic feet a day, according to the Egyptian Oil Ministry.

Source: Bloomberg