Italian oil company Eni and British BP will aim to produce 350m cu ft per day of gas from the discovery in South Baltim east of the Nile Delta in Egypt by the end of the current fiscal year, a report said.

The production will be linked to the national grid during the second half of 2017, added the Daily News Egypt report.

Six development wells will be drilled on depths ranging from 3,900 to 4,000 metres below the seabed, the report quoted a source as saying.

Drilling for each well could take two and a half months, he added, pointing out that the Baltim reserves were estimated at 700bn cu ft of recoverable gas. The second well is currently under construction