Egypt plans to return oil, gas production to normal from 2025, PM says

DUABI (Reuters) - Egypt plans to return oil and gas production to normal levels from 2025 with the help of international partners, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said in a press conference on Thursday.

The North African country had aimed to become a regional hub for liquefied natural gas after a string of recent discoveries, including the giant Zohr offshore gas field with an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Its hopes were cut short by a scarcity of foreign currency that led to an accumulation of arrears.

"There is a very clear plan to bring the volume of production of oil and natural gas with foreign partners back to previous levels, and to also increase it in the coming period," Madbouly said.

The government said in March it had started paying off dues owed to foreign companies working on petroleum projects in the country.

A payment plan for 20% of the arrears has begun, the government said, adding the remainder would be paid off through a scheduled plan.

During the summer, Egypt resorted to load-shedding to keep its power grid functioning, saying it needed to import around $1.18 billion worth of natural gas and mazut fuel oil to end long-running electricity cuts.

The country generates most of its electricity from burning natural gas.

Egypt's petroleum ministry said in July that gas production was 5.7 billion cubic feet per day, according to the state news agency.

The ministry signed two agreements with international companies in July to invest $340 million to boost oil and gas production in the Mediterranean and Gulf of Suez.

(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Tala Ramadan; editing by Jason Neely and Christina Fincher)