Live: Egypt inaugurates Zohr field, gets closer to energy hub goal

CAIRO - 31 January 2018: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi arrived in Port Said governorate Wednesday to witness the beginning of the early production of the giant Zohr gas field.

Covering an area of 100 square meters with a depth of 1,450 meters, the field is one of the largest offshore gas fields discovered in 2015 in Shorouq concession in the Mediterranean Sea by the Italian energy company Eni.

Here is a live stream video of the inauguration:



During his visit to the field, Sisi inspected the ground station of the Zohr field at the Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel), a venture that operates Eni's 100 percent stake of the Shorouq license.

Investing around $10 billion in the project, Eni estimates a total output of approximately 30 trillion cubic feet of gas. The new field will help secure energy needs of a country that consumes around 6 billion cubic feet of gas a day, with 65 percent of them going to the electricity sector.

Zohr is expected to provide the Egyptian economy with a significant boost estimated to be $2.5 billion annually. It started at a capacity of 350 million cubic feet per day, paving the state’s way to realize its ultimate goal of securing its energy needs and becoming self- sufficient.