Zohr gas field to be inaugurated in December: Source

CAIRO – 4 November 2017: The inauguration of the Mediterranean’s largest gas field Zohr will take place in December, kicking off with a production of 350 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas per day, a source in Egypt’s petroleum sector said Saturday.

He said that when the first phase is completed, the field will produce 1.2 billion mmcf of gas per day, after connecting a total of six wells to production.

When the field stats production, along with other gas fields, the Petroleum Ministry will target reducing reliance on imports during the coming period, the source said.

He said that finishing the field’s development works in two years is an “accomplishment” especially that similar projects need at least seven years to be completed.

Zhor field was discovered in 2015 by Italian energy company Eni and is expected to save Egypt some $1 billion annually in gas imports.

The field has an area of 100 square meters at a depth of 1,450 meters. Investing around $10 billion in the project; Eni is estimating total output of the field to be approximately 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Egypt produces 5.1 billion cubic feet of gas daily after several fields have started production. The country consumes around six billion cubic feet of gas a day, 65 percent of which go to the electricity sector.