Cairo - Mubasher: The Egyptian minister of petroleum said that natural gas production from the second phase of the West Nile Delta (WND) project will begin by the end of 2018.

Tarek El Molla added that fields including Giza and Faiyum will have a production capacity ranging between 500 and 700 million cubic feet per day.

Production is set to reach 1.6 billion cubic feet per day, with a 70-kilometer pipeline currently under construction.

It was previously reported that the fields are expected to cover around 25% of Egypt's gas demand upon completion.

According to Al Ahram, gas extraction from the West Delta fields is carried out in cooperation with British Petroleum (BP) and Germany's DEA group.