Citing Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla, the Egyptian cabinet of ministers announced on Tuesday that the country intends to develop 35 new natural gas wells in the upcoming two years through an investment of $1.5 billion.

This comes after the cabinet stated that Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly convened with El Molla in the city of New Alamein in northwest Egypt on Tuesday.

The cabinet's statement read: "He [El Molla] explained that the plan to drill 45 natural gas wells in the Mediterranean Sea and the delta [of the Nile] with an investment of 1.9 billion dollars is being implemented," adding that during the 2022-2023 fiscal year, around 10 gas wells were drilled.

"The plan includes drilling 35 new natural gas wells in the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 fiscal years, with investments totaling over $1.5 billion," El Molla said.  

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Egypt stopped importing gas in 2018 and has been upping its own production of natural gas, in addition to its repeated announcement of its intention to become a hub of gas trading in the region.

This comes just a week after Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources announced that a new oil field was discovered in the Gulf of Suez. "Cheiron Company announced that it has made a new oil discovery in the Geisum and Tawila West Concession in the Gulf of Suez," it confirmed in a statement.

The oil field will be managed by Egypt's Petrogulf Misr, which is a joint venture between the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and the Cheiron and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec) companies.