British Petroleum (BP) has started preparing the land allocated to establishing a natural gas processing plant in Rosetta (Rashid) city, with a capacity ranging from 600 to 700mcf/d, Daily News Egypt reported.

A senior official from the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) said that BP will complete the production facilities of the plant by the end of 2020. However, the convention stipulates that the gas production from the project would be ready by January 2020 and produce 1bcf/d for five years.

Article 10 of the convention states that in the case the contractor fails to complete the project by the set deadline, a six-month grace period would be allowed. After that, a penalty mechanism will be applied if there are no compelling circumstances preventing the contractor from completing the project.

The official said the convention includes the expected plan for producing natural gas in the project during the coming years, starting from July 2017.

He added that the company will increase the production to about 400mcf/d starting October 2017 until December 2018, while raising production rates to 550mcf in January 2019 until the end of the year.