Italy’s Eni and Russian Lukoil will work with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) to build a natural gas processing facility in Egypt’s Western Desert, Egypt Today reported.

The plant will cost $700 million to build and will process 100 million standard cubic feet (mscf) of natural gas per day.

The final go-ahead for the construction of the facility is pending governmental approval. However, it is expected to start before the end of 2018 and to take three years to be completed, said Mohamed al-Kaffas, head of AGIBA Petroleum Company.

The new plant will process natural gas from the Western Desert, before transporting it to a gas complex in Alexandria via a 200 km pipeline, al Kaffas pointed out.

AGIBA Petroleum Company is a joint venture between Eni and the EGPC.