Eni's First Appraisal Well at Massive Zohr Field Tests Positive
Italian explorer Eni has announced that it has successfully completed a production test from the first appraisal well of the Zohr discovery in Egypt.
The Zohr discovery, which was made in August 2015, is estimated to be one of the largest gas fields in the world with estimated reserves of 30 trillion ft3 of lean gas in place.
Eni was granted a lease to develop the field by the Egyptian authorities on February 21. At the time, it said that it expected the start-up of the field to be quick.
In a statement released March 10, Eni said it had performed a test during which 120m of the reservoir were opened to production.
"The well, constrained by surface facilities, delivered up to 44mn scf of gas per day," it said. "The comprehensive set of data collected and analyzed have proved that the well has a great production capacity, which is estimated in a deliverability of up to 250mn scf/day in production configuration."
This is just the first step in Eni's programme for the field for 2016. The company expects to drill a further three wells this year. Work has also started on an onshore gas treatment plant and the company says that bids for the offshore activities are nearly completed.
Eni has a 100% stake in the field, under the Shorouk licence, through its fully owned subsidiary, IEOC. IEOC has partnered with Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), Egypt's national oil company to form the joint venture Petrobel to conduct the operations on the Shorouk licence.
According to Eni's development plan for the field, it expects production to start by the end of 2017, with a progressive ramp up to production of about 75mn m³/d by 2019.
Erica Mills