The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) General Secretary, Mohamed Barkindo, said at a press conference that Egypt may join OPEC’s oil production cap agreement, TASS informed.

Barkindo noted that OPEC expects more other producers joining the agreement and Egypt to be part of it. In light of that, he praised Egypt’s Zohr discovery, stating that the find would be critical to not only reviving the oil and gas sector in the country, but the economy as a whole, Sputnik’s Arabic portal reported.

According to Barkindo, the organization looks forward to Egypt’s accession to the 24 producing countries, which signed a protocol of cooperation in December 2016 in Vienna. He added that Egypt is considered an important African oil producer with prospects for development.

According to IEA, Egypt is currently an observer state in OPEC. Egypt was producing 690,000 barrels of oil per day on average in 2016.