Cairo lauds BP natural gas campaign

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CAIRO, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- A BP natural gas project in the Egyptian waters of the Mediterranean Sea is valued at about $11 billion, the government said.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi met with BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley in Cairo to discuss natural gas development.

Egypt's State Information Service reports that BP is drilling to a depth of more than 25,000 feet in the Mediterranean Sea to extract 1 billion feet of natural gas per day, which SIS says represented about 20 percent of Egypt's total energy productivity.

The project should take more than three years to complete, the report added.

Last week, BP announced that samples taken from two plays in an offshore concession area in the Nile Delta confirmed the presence of natural gas.

President and General Manager for BP's Egyptian Division Hesham Mekawi had said the discovery demonstrates an ongoing commitment to working with the new Egyptian government to bolster the growth of the country's natural gas business.

The U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration states that proven natural gas reserves in 2012 in Egypt were the third highest in Africa at around 77 trillion cubic feet, a 31 percent increase from level the year prior to the country's revolution.