The daily output of Egypt’s Zohr natural gas field reached 900 million standard cubic feet (mscf) after the second and third lines were linked to production, the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum, Tarek El Molla, said during a press conference, Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

The petroleum minister said that current efforts to expand production capacity will enable output to reach around 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) by the beginning of Ramadan.

If achieved, this production rate would be reached 50 days ahead of schedule, El Molla said.

The minister’s statements came during a press conference held with Cypriot Energy Minister, Yiorgos Lakkotrypis. The two officials were meeting to discuss the preliminary agreement to construct a pipeline between Cyprus’s offshore gas fields and Egypt’s liquefied natural gas facilities.

El Molla said that the proposed pipeline between Cyprus’s Aphrodite gas field and Egypt’s liquefied natural gas facilities will cost between $800 million and $1 billion, according to Reuters.