CAIRO  - Egypt's petroleum minister said on Wednesday that the country would begin exporting natural gas in January, news website El Watan reported.

Tarek El Molla told El Watan in an interview that Egypt would halt gas imports in October.

"It will be the beginning of gas self sufficiency, and we'll begin exporting the surplus in January 2019," he said. He gave no further details.

Egypt aims to be a regional hub for the trade of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after a string of major discoveries in recent years including the giant Zohr offshore gas field which holds an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elhamy, John Davison, Ali Abdelaty; Editing by Alison Williams) ((John.Davison@thomsonreuters.com;))