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中国石化新闻网讯，据路透社6月26日消息，埃及石油部长在周四表示BP将重启搁置达三年之久的投资100亿美元的天然气项目，并在2017年正式投产。这标志着埃及正努力缓解几十年来最严重的能源危机。

另一重振投资者信心的举措是，能源部长谢里夫?伊斯梅尔宣布埃及将在今年年底以前偿还欠外国公司15亿美元的债务。

部长对正前往西部沙漠al-Aseel油田的记者说，BP在亚历山大北部的特许开采权将在2017年开始，天然气的初始产量为4.5亿立方英尺/日。2018年该油田产量将升至8亿立方英尺/日。

这将极大提升埃及目前的天然气产量，伊斯马尔部长在这个月对当地报纸表示希望总产量到今年12月能达到52亿立方英尺/日。

自2011年推翻了胡斯尼?穆巴拉克政府以来，动荡和暴力事件已经严重打击经济。在慷慨的国家补贴刺激需求的增长的同时，政府只能勉强支付外国公司费用并且导致一些主要的新的天然气项目陷于停顿。

当埃及政府债台高筑，并把承诺出口的天然气转而解决国内需求时，外国公司对日益增长的投资的担忧加剧了埃及天然气产量的持续下降。

政府承诺在2017年底之前，将偿还外国公司包括BG集团和BP等在内30亿美元，此举试图重新吸引投资者开发埃及的天然气资源。

邹玮摘译自路透社2014-06-26

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原文如下：

Egypt says BP gas project restarted, pledges to pay gas firm debts

Thu Jun 26, 2014

(Reuters) - Egypt's oil minister said on Thursday that BP's $10 billion gas project, stalled for three years, had restarted and that production would begin in 2017, a sign of progress in efforts to ease the worst energy crunch in decades.

In another move that could help improve investor confidence, Sherif Ismail also said Egypt would pay $1.5 billion of the money it owed to foreign energy companies by the end of 2014.

The minister told reporters on a visit to al-Aseel oil field in the western desert that production at BP's North Alexandria concession would begin in 2017, with 450 million cubic feet per day initially being extracted. He said output would rise to 800 million cubic feet per day in 2018.

Those volumes would mean a significant boost to current production, which Ismail told a local newspaper this month was expected to reach 5.2 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day by the end of December.

Political turmoil and violence since the 2011 revolt that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak has hit the economy hard. The government has struggled to pay foreign companies for gas and work on some major new gas projects has ground to a halt at a time when generous state subsidies are stoking growing demand.

Egypt's steadily declining gas production has been exacerbated by foreign firms' wariness about increasing investment when the government owes them money and has diverted most of the gas promised for exports to meet domestic demand.

The government has promised to pay companies including BG Group and BP $3 billion by the end of 2017 as it tries to lure back investors to help it develop its reserves.