Italian energy major Eni has increased production at its supergiant Zohr field offshore Egypt to 2 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d), following the startup of the project's fifth production unit.

Zohr started production in December 2017 – just 28 months after its discovery – and is on track to reach plateau production of 2.7 billion cf/d next year.

The production peak – the equivalent of almost 102 billion cubic feet a year (cf/y) – would represent more than half of Egypt's current gas demand of around 183.63 cf/y.

Egypt, which until recently was a fairly stable exporter of both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline gas, began importing LNG in April 2015 to fill a growing supply-demand gap caused by a major slowdown in domestic gas development.

With the startup of Zohr and other gas fields in Egypt, the country expects to halt LNG imports by the end of 2018 and become an exporter of gas again in 2019.

"Zohr is playing a fundamental role in supporting Egypt's independence from LNG imports," Eni said in a statement.

Zohr is the largest deepwater gas field offshore Egypt, and the biggest discovered to date in the Mediterranean with an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of reserves.

It is located within the offshore Shorouk block, 190 kilometres north of Port Said.

Eni holds a 50 per cent stake in the block together with Russia's Rosneft (30 per cent), BP (10 per cent) and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Petroleum (10 per cent).

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