Eni Starting Drilling for Gas at Egypt's Zohr Prospect

Eni started drilling activities at Egypt’s Zohr field on Saturday, country’s petroleum minister told Al Ahram.

Tarek el Molla said Eni is to drill around 20 wells with investment cost estimated at around $12 billion that will be totally paid by the Italian firm. The drilling works are set to be executed over 26 months.

In August Eni made a “world class supergiant gas discovery” at its Zohr prospect, in the deep waters of Egypt. The discovery could hold a potential of 30 trillion cubic feet of lean gas in place (5.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent in place) covering an area of about 100 square kilometres. Zohr is the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and in the Mediterranean Sea and could become one of the world’s largest natural-gas finds.

The minister said that the field is expected to produce around 2.7 billion cubic feet daily.