Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek el-Molla

Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek el-Molla, said in an interview for CNBC on Sunday that Egypt will begin exporting gas to Lebanon by the end of 2021.

He also added that Egypt's gas production ranges between 7-7.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day, noting that exports are at around 1.8 billion cubic feet per day.

The Petroleum Minister had announced earlier this month that the necessary procedures to supply Lebanon with Egyptian natural gas were set to be completed within the next few weeks. On his part, the Lebanese Minister of Energy and Water, Walid Fayyad, had said that the talks in Egypt were successful, revealing discussions on swift mechanisms aimed at reactivating the agreements of transferring Egyptian gas to Lebanon through the Arab gas pipeline passing through Jordan and Syria.

250 MW of electricity

Fayyad revealed to Al Mayadeen last Thursday that the tripartite meeting on importing gas to Lebanon, which was signed in Jordan, will provide an approximate 250 MW and improve electricity by 2 to 3 hours.

Fayad stressed that the agreement was accomplished thanks to the international cover, specifically following US approval, noting that Washington asserted that the agreement will not run counter to the Caesar Act.

On that day, Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Saleh Kharabsheh concluded a meeting with Fayyad and their Syrian counterpart Ghassan al-Zamel and announced after the meeting that a final agreement was reached on supplying Lebanon with electricity through Syria.

Jordan had already hosted a meeting early in September to look into increasing cooperation to deliver Egyptian gas to Lebanon through Jordan and Syria.