Egyptian Zohr Field Commissioning Starts: Ministry
The Eni-operated Zohr gas field offshore Egypt has been launched at an initial rate of 350mn ft³/d (about 10mn m³/d), Egypt’s petroleum minister Tarek El-Molla said in a press statement December 16.
Gas was pumped from the field to the processing plant in Port Said, he said. “The volume is expected to reach 1bn ft³/d in June and rise to 2.7bn ft³/d in late 2019,” according to the ministry’s Arabic website.
El-Molla said that the project will make Egypt self-sufficient in gas, ease the budget expenditures and cut gas import bill. The field, discovered in 2015, contains 850bn m3 recoverable gas, or about half of Egypt’s total reserves.
According to Cairo-based English publisher Daily News Egypt, El-Molla said that experimental production from Zohr began December 15 to test the lines and the natural gas processing plant; the timing of the actual operation of the field is expected to be announced by Eni after a treatment plant has been tested.
Eni announced October 9 that the company has finalised the sale of a 30% stake in the Shorouk concession, where the super-giant Zohr gas field is located, to Rosneft.
The terms of the Rosneft sale, agreed in December 2016, include a payment of $1.125bn and a pro rata reimbursement of investments already made.
Eni, through its subsidiary IEOC, now holds a 60% stake in the concession, Rosneft has 30% and BP 10%.
According to BP statistics, Egypt produced 41.8bn m³ sales gas in 2016, 5.7% less than the previous year. The figure indicates a 50% decline since 2009, and the country has been importing gas since 2015.
Eni and ministry officials visit onshore facilities linked to the Zohr field (Photo credit: Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum)