Eni Ramps up Egypt's Zohr Field

Italian integrated energy company Eni has started up the second production unit at its giant Zohr field, offshore Egypt, it said April 26. "After a record start-up in less than two and a half years from discovery, production is now swiftly ramping-up to reach plateau in 2019."  The unit raises installed capacity by 400mn ft³/day, just four months after start-up, effectively doubling its capacity.

Zohr now has a capacity of 800mn ft³/d, equivalent to 150,000 barrels/day of oil equivalent, of which 46,000 boe/d net to Eni. The production ramp-up is planned to continue with the same exceptional performance, in order to reach 1.2bn ft³/d in May 2018, 2bn ft³/d by end 2018 and the production plateau (2.7bn ft³/d) in 2019, the company said. 

The field, some 190 km north of Port Said, was discovered in August 2015, and Eni obtained the development lease approval in February 2016. Production started in December 2017 and could mean that Egypt no longer needs to import any more LNG from this year onward. Eni holds a 60% stake in the Shorouk Block which includes the giant Zohr field, while Rosneft has 30% and BP 10%.