NEW YORK (TheStreet) --BP plc (BP) - Get Report announced this morning that along with its partners it is planning to invest close to $12 billion as part of a finalized West Nile Delta deal to develop 5 trillion cubic feet of gas resources and 55 million barrels of condensates in the Egyptian market.

"The project underlines BP's commitment to the Egyptian market and is a vote of confidence in Egypt's investment climate and economic potential," the British oil company said in a statement.

The supply deal will help Egypt as it battles through its worst energy crisis in decades, Reuters reports, adding that the country's increase in energy consumption and decline in production have made it go from a net energy exporter to a net importer over the last few years, causing persistent blackouts.

BP has about 65% equity in the deal. The company expects production to start in 2017.

Shares of BP are lower by 0.73% to $40.88 in pre-market trading on Friday.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates BP PLC as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate BP PLC (BP) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its good cash flow from operations and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, deteriorating net income and disappointing return on equity."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• Net operating cash flow has increased to $7,247.00 million or 33.85% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -12.58%.
• The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.47, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Although the company had a strong debt-to-equity ratio, its quick ratio of 0.98 is somewhat weak and could be cause for future problems.
• BP, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 18.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 21.0%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• Return on equity has greatly decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry and the overall market, BP PLC's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• The gross profit margin for BP PLC is currently extremely low, coming in at 8.97%. It has decreased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of -5.95% trails that of the industry average.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: BP Ratings Report