Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi attended on Wednesday the inauguration of production at the West Nile Delta (WND) Project, the largest gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. The project is expected to cover one quarter of Egypt's gas needs upon the completion of all phases. Gas extraction from the West Delta fields is being carried out in cooperation with British Petroleum (BP) and Germany's DEA group. The project involves the development of gas and condensate fields located within West Mediterranean Deepwater concessions approximately 75 kilometres off the coast of Alexandria. The president, who gave the first signal via video conference to start production at the field, expressed appreciation for the Egyptian people and everyone who worked to accomplish the first phase of the giant project before its scheduled deadline. El-Sisi also urged participant companies in the project to accomplish the second phase in 2018. The CEOs of BP and DEA said they were honoured to participate in the project, describing it as a turning point in Egypt's history of gas production. In March 2015, the two European companies inked the final agreement of the project with the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum, General Petroleum Corporation and the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, investing $12 billion for the first phase. The project is planned to develop 5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas and 55 million barrels (mmbbl) of condensate reserves in its first phase. Peak production is expected to reach 1.2 billion cubic feet a day (bcf/d) of gas, which is equivalent to approximately 25% of Egypt's current gas production.
