Egypt has increased its oil output by 55,000 barrels per day (bpd), bringing the country’s daily oil production to 700,000 barrels for the first time in 14 years, the official MENA news agency reported.

The announcement was in a report of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) presented to Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmi.

The increase is attributed to the discoveries of new oil fields in the Gulf of Suez, the Nile Delta, the Western Desert and the Mediterranean Sea in the 2007-2008 fiscal year between July 1 last year and June 30 this year, said the report.

Reserves of crude oil have reached a record 4.2 billion barrels due to the new findings of oil fields in Egypt, one of the major oil producers in North Africa, added the report.

Egypt’s oil exports is the country’s major sources of income along with tourism, remittances from expatriate workers and the revenues of the Suez Canal.

(Rigzone)