Eni produces first gas from Egypt’s largest offshore gas discovery

Italian oil and gas company Eni has produced first gas from the supergiant Zohr field, less than two and a half years since the discovery.

The discovery, which is located in the Shorouk Block, offshore Egypt approximately 190 km north of Port Said, has a potential in excess of 30 Tcf of gas in place (about 5.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent).

Zohr is the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and in the Mediterranean Sea, and will be able to satisfy a part of Egypt’s natural gas demand for decades to come, Eni said.

Zohr is one of Eni’s seven record-breaking projects, which have involved rapid development and production, and is testament to the success of Eni’s Dual

Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, said: “Today is a historic day for us. It further confirms the capability of Eni’s women and men to turn challenging opportunities into unprecedented achievements. The start-up of Zohr is the direct result of our unique know-how, our ability to innovate in technology and of our tenacity in pursuing even the most challenging goals, of which we are very proud.

“This project has been possible exploiting to the maximum level the competences, the skills as well as the human and infrastructural capabilities that this Country offers in terms of local content. It will completely transform Egypt’s energy landscape, allowing it to become self-sufficient and to turn from an importer of natural gas into a future exporter. I would like to thank the Egyptian Authorities and all our Partners in this incredible project for their all-important contributions and the whole Egyptian petroleum sector which provided full support to achieve Zohr project in a record time.”

To remind, Egypt’s petroleum minister Tareq Al-Mulla had earlier this week announced the start of production, however this was seen as an experimental operation to pump gas from the Zohr wells offshore wells to new plant in Port Said.

The Zohr gas field was discovered by Eni in August 2015 and is estimated to have a total potential of up to 30 trillion cubic feet of gas in place. Eni through its joint venture Petrobel operates the Shourouk concession that contains the Zohr field. BP completed its purchase of a 10% interest in the concession from Eni in February 2017 and Rosneft purchased a 30% interest from Eni in October 2017.