The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) pays Royal Dutch Shell $3.1 per  1 million British thermal unit (mBtu) to buy its natural gas share produced from phase 9B of Burullus field, a source at EGPC told Daily News Egypt.

Shell plans to link the first phase of the 9B project during the first half of 2019, and the second phase will be linked in fiscal year (FY) 2019/20, the source noted.

The project has eight productive wells as well as two exploration wells.

Shell plans to boost the output of Burullus and Rashid fields to 450 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) by the end of FY 2018/19 by adding 100 mmscf per day from 9B, the source pointed out.

The company allocated $500 million to be invested during FY 2019/20 in the implementation of several projects in phase 9B and to construct a pipeline to link the West Delta gas fields.