EGAS, the Egyptian Gas Company, announced on Wednesday, 19 January that it will issue an international bid for gas exploration in 19 different areas this year, Reuters reported.

The 19 areas comprise 17 located in the Mediterranean and two in the Nile Delta region, according to EGAS Chairman Mahmoud Latif.

EGAS expects domestic consumption to reach 35.5 million tons in 2010-201, according to a company report.

Egypt became of a key producer of gas in the last 10 years, upgrading its gas fields in the Mediterranean and exporting its first liquid gas at the beginning of 2005, boosting sales through improved pipelines.  

Egypt's proven reserves jumped from 1.22 trillion cubic metres a decade ago to 2.19 trillion cubic meters at the end of 2009, compared with only 0.35 trillion in 1989, according to a BP report on world energy.

A major step was taken when Egypt signed a $9 billion agreement with BP and RWE Dea AG, headquartered in Hamburg — an international operator in the field of exploration and production of natural gas and crude oil — for the development of two fields near the coastal city of Alexandria.