Abdel-Sadek made his remarks during a tour with Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla of the petroleum regions in the Red Sea's Gulf of Suez and Ras Ghareb.

The GPC, a state-owned company established in 1957, is engaged in the exploration, production and development of hydrocarbons. It works on 28 oil and gas fields nationwide.

Egypt achieved self-sufficiency in natural gas by the end of September 2018, with the current natural gas production reaching 7.2 billion cubic feet per day.

The boom in the country's gas production has been supported by huge gas discoveries and production, the biggest of which is the giant Zohr field in the Mediterranean, which was discovered in 2015 and is believed to be the largest-ever gas discovery in Egypt and the Mediterranean.

With reserves estimated at 30 trillion cubic feet, Zohr’s daily production exceeded 3 billion cubic feet in 2020, making up 40 percent of Egypt’s total gas output, according to previous statements by El-Molla.

Egypt plans to use its location on Europe’s doorstep to become a major supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the continent, which is transitioning away from other fossil fuels.

It has the infrastructure for the transport and handling of natural gas, with the main network of 7,000km of pipelines, as well as a distribution network of 31,000km, and 29 gas-treatment plants in addition to two LNG facilities.

Egypt’s petroleum production

Abdel-Sadek stated that the company's current oil production reached unprecedented rates.

The current production capacity of the GPC has reached 74,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, Abdel-Sadek said.

The unprecedented rates came due to the efforts being done by the GPC in terms of increasing investments to scale up exploration activities, improving the performance of brownfields, infrastructure development and production improvements, Abdel-Sadek told the minister.

From his side, El-Molla called for making the best use of all available capabilities to intensifying oil research and exploration activities in light of the rise of fuel prices globally.

The price of Brent crude hit $82.39 on Sunday, down from $83,10 two days prior. The price of WTI Crude dropped from $79,46 on Friday to $79.35 on Sunday, while the price of OPEC oil remains at $78.60.