BP has announced the start-up of a gas project in Algeria.

In Salah Gas is a joint venture between the oil giant which has a 33.15% stake and Sonatrach and Statoil which own 35% and 31.85% respectively.

Their Southern Fields project is the latest stage in the development of seven gas fields in central Algeria.

It includes the development of four dry gas fields which will maintain planned production at nine billion cubic metres per year.

The joint venture started production from three fields in the north of the region in 2004.

Production is expected to ramp up to 14.1 million cubic metres per day as two new wells will be online in the next two months.

Ealier this month BP announced it will cut up to 3,000 new jobs after it reported a fall in profits.