(Ecofin Agency) - The Government of Egypt has put measures in place to commence the development of five new oil and gas fields from Q3 of 2017 till 2019.

The five fields are Taurus, Libra, Giza, Fayoum, and Raven, an official source revealed.

According to this source, the Q3 of 2017 will also see BP restarting all the production and developmental activities in the North Alexandria oil field, which has been stagnant since 2011 as a result of Egypt’s political and economic situations.

BP has been in talks with succeeding Egyptian governments regarding the North Alexandria field since 1992, but up till now has been unsuccessful in producing any gas due to the disputes. The gas field has been predicted to originally start producing 490Mmcf/d when it comes on stream and is expected to continue to increase until it reaches the production capacity of 1.25bcf/d in 2019 or 2020.

The Government through the Ministry of Petroleum has also signed a deal to build a third platform for transporting LNG after it is connected to the national grid.

The ministry is also planning to provide 2bcf/d of gas to commence the operation of the third regasification unit in Q2 of 2017, Egypt Oil and Gas news reports.

Anita Fatunji