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LONDON/CAIRO, March 6 (Reuters) - British oil company BP expects to invest around $12 billion with its partners aspart of a finalised West Nile Delta concession deal to develop 5trillion cubic feet of gas resources and 55 million barrels ofcondensates.
The supply deal will help Egypt as it tackles its worstenergy crisis in decades. Rising energy consumption anddecreasing production have turned it from a net energy exporterto a net importer in the last few years and caused persistentblackouts.
BP said on Friday that production from the project wasexpected to reach up to 1.2 billion cubic feet a day, equivalentto about 25 percent of Egypt's current gas production.
BP said it had about 65 percent equity in the projectpartnership. Production is expected to start in 2017.
BP North Africa Regional President, Hesham Mekawi said: "BPexpects to double its current gas supply to the Egyptiandomestic market during this decade when the WND (West NileDelta) project reaches its peak production."
BP said gas would be produced from two BP-operated offshoreconcession blocs, North Alexandria and West MediterraneanDeepwater. The firm said it believed there was the potential forfuture exploration to add a further 5-7 tcf which could boostWND production with additional investments.
BP also said that production from its Taurus and Libra gasfields would be channelled via BG Group's existingoffshore pipeline network, serving its Burullus concession, intothe Egyptian grid.
The head of BG had told Reuters in December that the companywas in advanced talks that could boost supplies to power-hungryEgypt by allowing rival BP to use its pipelines.
(Reporting by Kate Holton and Yara Bayoumy; editing by OlegVukmanovic and Jane Merriman)