The Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, stated to media that Egypt plans to increase petroleum production over the next two years and reduce fuel imports.

According to El Molla, “the Ministry of Petroleum has put forward a plan … to increase the country’s production of petroleum products and reduce its reliance on imports to 10% of total consumption by 2019” from the current 30%, as reported by Reuters. The minister pointed out that Egypt consumes 6.

8m tons of fuel per month.

The North African country has been trying to reverse that trend speeding up production of oil and gas at recent discoveries. Large natural gas findings are expected to make Cairo self-sufficient in gas by the end of 2018, and the government is now looking to make similar progress in petroleum, informed Al Mal News.

Additionally, Egypt is in talks with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers to defer contracted shipments in 2017, and aims to cut back on purchases in 2018 as surging domestic gas production pushes back demand for costly foreign imports.