Halting gas imports will save $250M monthly: Min.

CAIRO - 27 January 2018: Minister of Petroleum Tarek el-Molla said Saturday that the importation of liquefied gas will be halted by June 2018, which will save Egypt $250 million a month.

In press statements after meeting with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail at General Authority For Investment & Free Zones (GAFI) headquarters, Molla said that Egypt’s giant offshore Zohr field will reach its production peak by the end of 2019.

The meeting focused on the current and future plans, as well as projects being carried out by the ministry, including the trial operation of Zohr and preparations for its inauguration, according to state news agency MENA.

Italy’s Eni in December delivered the first gas from Zohr field, whose estimated 30 trillion cubic feet (tfc) makes it the biggest gas field in the Mediterranean, and BP delivered the first gas from another offshore field, Atoll, north of Port Said.

Discovered in 2015 by Italian energy company Eni, Zohr gas 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.