Egypt's petroleum minister Tarek El Molla has announced that British oil major BP is to start production at its North Alexandria concession in early 2017 instead of the mid-2017 it had initially reported.

“The offshore concession's output will be roughly 450 million cubic feet per day in 2017 and reach 1.2 billion cubic feet per day by the end of 2019," El Molla told Oil and gas people.

As a matter of fact, the capacity will be a significant increase to gas production in Egypt as it seeks ways to cut off energy shortages that has slowed down output at many of its energy industries.

Authorities in Egypt have in recent months fought to develop terms for foreign oil and gas businesses with the hope that more competitive pricing will encourage investment in the country.

However, declining oil and gas output together with increasing consumption have forced Egypt to divert supplies to the domestic market and it is now a net energy importer.