Egypt is to begin natural gas production from its offshore Zohr field in 2017, ahead of schedule, according to oil minister Tarek El Molla.

The Zohr gas find, is the biggest in the Mediterranean and officials had previously announced that production was to start in 2018. With an estimated 30 tcf of gas, the field is expected to stop the country’s heightened energy shortages and also save it billions of dollars that would otherwise be spent on imports.

“We are looking to expedite the agreement with the partner and speed up production. Hopefully we will begin production from the discovery in 2017,” El Molla told Energy-pedia in an interview at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.

Meanwhile, Eni has said it plans to invest between $6 billion and $10 billion to develop the Zohr field.

Due to the declining oil and gas production and increasing consumption, Egypt that was once an energy exporter, has turned into a net importer. It is however trying to speed up production at recent discoveries to fill its energy gap as soon as possible.