INVESTMENT WATCH- Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin told reporters the company is considering buying an additional 5% stake in Zohr, Reuters reports. Rosneft recently closed its acquisition of a 30% stake in the gas field — first announced last year — from Eni for USD 1.125 bn. Sechin also added some of the gas produced from Zohr “could be supplied to Europe.”

This comes as EGAS sources say that the field will begin production as early as next month at a daily capacity of 350 mcf, according to Youm7. Production will double to around 700 mcf/d before the end of 1Q2018, the source added.

With Zohr set to start production, EGAS is curbing its appetite for natural gas imports. EGAS has put out an international tender to buy 12 LNG shipments for delivery in 1Q2018, traders tell Reuters. EGAS wants nine of the shipments delivered through regasification units, they added. EGAS began reducing its monthly LNG imports by 30% starting in September, with Oil Minister Tarek El Molla saying in August that Egypt would buy 80 LNG cargoes in FY2017-18. An increase in local production had driven last fiscal year’s LNG purchases down to 118 cargoes from an initial projection of 154. The new tender was not expected to be “in the same scale” as previous purchases because Egypt’s “supply and demand is more balanced,” Mark Catton, Glencore’s director of LNG, told reporters Tuesday in London, according to Bloomberg.