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CAIRO- Production from Egypt's huge offshore Zohr field in the Mediterranean will reach 2.9 billion cubic feet per day by mid-2019, Italy's Eni ENI.MI said on Monday.
Speaking at an industry event in Cairo, CEO Claudio Descalzi said the goal was to reach output of 1.8 bcf to 2 bcf per day by the end of 2018 and then ramp up to 2.9 bcf per day by mid-2019.
Discovered in 2015 by Eni, the field contains an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Descalzi confirmed that by mid-2019, seven trains would be operating.
Egypt has been seeking to speed up production from recently discovered fields, with an eye to halting imports by 2019 and achieving self-sufficiency.
(Reporting By Eric Knecht and Nadine Awadallah; Writing By Maha El Dahan; Editing by Adrian Croft) ((Maha.Dahan@thomsonreuters.com; + 9712 4082101; Reuters Messaging: maha.dahan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))