Production from the Baltim South West offshore gas field, which is run by Italy's Eni and British Petroleum (BP), has reached 190 million cubic feet of gas a day after two new wells went on steam, the petroleum ministry said on Tuesday.

The offshore gas field in the Nile Delta region started production of 100 million cubic feet of gas a day in mid-September.

Output is expected to rise to 500 million cubic feet of gas by the second quarter of 2020 when a total of six wells go online, the ministry had said earlier.

Discovered in June 2016, the field has a potential capacity of 1 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, while the potential of the Great Nooros area, where the field is located, is nearly 3 tcf, according to Eni.

Eni, through its subsidiary IEOC, and BP each hold a 50 percent stake in the Baltim South license.

The project is operated by Petrobel, a joint venture between IEOC and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).

In 2015, Eni discovered Egypt’s mammoth offshore Zohr gas field, the largest in the Mediterranean, which holds an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Bigger output has helped Egypt become self sufficient in natural gas in late 2018.