Sharm El-Sheikh – Mubasher: Egypt’s oil minister Sherif Ismail signed on Saturday an agreement worth $12 billion with UK’s British Petroleum (BP).

The deal is for the development of 5 trillion cubic feet of gas resources and 55 million barrels of condensates in the West Nile Delta.

Egypt will successfully plug the gap and curb fuel imports by 2020. It is also continuing with new explorations in the Mediterranean Sea, the minister said, on the sidelines of Egypt’s economic conference that kicked off on Friday in Sharm El-Sheikh.

BP has said that production from the project was expected to reach up to 1.2 billion cubic feet a day, equivalent to about 25% of Egypt's current gas production.

BP said it had about 65 % equity in the project partnership. Production is expected to start in 2017.