The Egyptian authorities will invest 1.2 billion dollars in the next fiscal year 2023-2024 in the Zohr gas field, the largest located in the Mediterranean Sea.

This was announced in a statement by Khaled Mowafi, president of the Belaim Petroleum Company, a joint firm between the Italian giant ENI and the state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation.

Mowafi explained that the goal is to implement an ambitious field development plan by expanding the drilling of new wells and repairing others. He also said that projects will be undertaken to increase the efficiency of the facilities in the land production plant.

ENI, a company that operates in Egypt since 1954, participates in the exploitation of Zohr, with estimated reserves of 30 trillion cubic feet. According to its website, the firm is the leading producer in Egypt, with some 350,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

After achieving self-sufficiency in natural gas in 2018, the Egyptian authorities are trying to make Egypt a major gas supplier to Europe through its geographical position.

Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait announced in December that the country is working on a strategy to increase the value of gas exports up to $1 billion per month by 2023.

When speaking at the Euromoney Egypt 2022 conference, the official said that Egypt currently bills about 600 million dollars a month for its foreign sales of gas.