British Petroleum (BP) aims to speed up the implementation of the development process of North Alexandria project in the deep waters of the Mediterranean and to connect its production of about 300m cubic feet of gas per day (scf/day) to the national grid by April. A source at the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) told Daily News Egypt that the total production of the Fayoum and Giza fields located in north Alexandria and west Mediterranean will reach 700m scf/day in April, which is the maximum production of both fields. He explained that gas production from Giza and Fayoum fields started in February with a capacity of 400m scf/day, as the two fields include eight wells in the deep waters of the Mediterranean. The source added that BP will be implementing the development process of North Alexandria project in the Mediterranean according to the plan agreed upon with EGAS. It seeks to connect about 850m scf/day from the Raven field in the project's third phase by the end of 2019 with an initial production rate of 350m scf/day. He pointed out that a special gas treatment plant is currently under construction near the Rasheed treatment plant. It will be processing the gas produced from the Raven field with a capacity of 900m scf/day. Furthermore, he pointed out that the natural gas produced from the Raven field will have special specifications different from the two previous phases in the Libra, Taurus, Giza, and Fayoum fields. The production of north Alexandria and west Mediterranean deepwater concessions is expected to increase as full production begins this year, with the production of the three phases of the west Nile Delta project to reach nearly 1.4bn scf/day, which is an equivalent of 20% of Egypt's current gas production. The gas produced from these fields will be added to the national gas grid. The source said that the Ministry of Petroleum is working with foreign partners to speed up field development and connect it to the production of the national grid before the determined dates of the plan. A committee headed by the minister of petroleum and includes several ministries was formed by the cabinet to turn Egypt into a logistical centre. The source explained that these wells will contribute toward compensating the natural rate decline of local production and will contribute to increasing production to more than 7m scf/day.
