President Abdel Fattah El Sisi reaffirmed Egypt’s plans to achieve natural gas self sufficiency this year during the official inaugural ceremony of the supergiant Zohr gas field yesterday, according to an Ittihadiya statement. Oil Minister Tarek El Molla had said last week that Zohr, which began production in December ahead of schedule, could help Egypt halt all LNG imports by July this year, instead of late 2018 or early 2019, saving the state as much as USD 250 mn a month. The offshore Mediterranean field, which holds an estimated 30 tcf of reserves and currently pumps a daily 350 mcf, is expected to reach a target 2.7 bcf/d by the end of 2019, helping “restore the nation as a gas supplier for the eastern Mediterranean region,” Bloomberg notes. Egypt Today has put together a neat list of all Zohr-related facts and figures.

Work completed in record time, despite Regeni case: Work on the Zohr gas field, which was discovered by Italy’s Eni in 2015, was completed in record time despite the diplomatic rift between Cairo and Rome over the murder of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni in Cairo. During the ceremony, “El Sisi repeated his pledge that Egypt would help bring the killers of the 28 year-old researcher to justice,” thanking Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi and Italian authorities for “‘standing alongside [Egypt] despite the Regeni case.’” Xinhua also has coverage.

This comes as Amnesty International UK proselytizes on behalf of campaigners calling for demonstration at the Egyptian embassy in London tomorrow to mark the second anniversary of Regeni’s killing.