The government is currently working on finishing all petroleum projects on time, if not earlier, to achieve its plans of self-sufficiency and be an exporter instead of an importer, according to AlWatan News.

The Ministry of Petroleum announced earlier that it would stop importing petroleum products by 2022, following its new discoveries.

The ministry aims to achieve self-sufficiency of all petroleum products during the next two years, which coincides with the completion of all the new expansions in the Egyptian refineries during the fiscal year (FY) 2022/2023.

Egypt has already begun to achieve self-sufficiency of natural gas and started exporting it.

Egypt’s imports of crude oil dropped from $132.7 million in January 2018 to $105.2 million at the beginning of this year, a decline of 20.8%.

Meanwhile, imports of petroleum products fell by 15.4% in May 2019 to $ 617.6 million compared to $ 730 million in May 2018.