Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Writing Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Susan Fenton
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt is looking to ramp up petroleum production over the next two years, aiming to reduce fuel imports to about 10 percent of total consumption from 30 percent currently, media quoted Oil Minister Tarek El Molla as saying.
Once an energy exporter, Egypt has turned into a net importer in recent years, squeezed by declining production and increasing consumption.
Egypt has been trying to reverse that trend, speeding up production of oil and gas at recent discoveries. Large natural gas finds are expected to make Cairo self-sufficient in gas by the end of 2018, and it is now looking to make similar progress in petroleum.
