Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt plans to reduce oil imports to one third by 2019 thanks to oil production and refining projects, according to the minister of petroleum and mineral resources, Tarek El-Molla.
The ministry put a time frame to increase the country’s production of oil and natural gas in order to reduce dependence on imports to 10% of total consumption by 2019, compared to 30% at the present time, Alborsanews reported on Sunday.
During 2016, the petroleum ministry has signed eight agreements with six global and local companies to search for oil and gas reserves in the Mediterranean, the Western Desert, the Gulf of Suez and Upper Egypt, with total investments worth $709 million, as well as drilling 33 new energy wells.
