Exploration digging in Noor field to start in August: Source

CAIRO – 27 June 2018: The Italian oil company ENI and Tharwa Petroleum Company will begin digging the first exploration well of the Noor field in the concession area in the Mediterranean after obtaining the necessary approvals from the Ministry of Petroleum, an official source in the oil sector said.

"Before the end of August, we will begin drilling," he said.

The source added the Italian Company is now implementing a three dimensional seismic survey, adding that the survey will be completed during the upcoming weeks.

“Eni and Thawra companies share the foreign stake of Noor field as Thawra allocates 15 percent and the rest goes for Eni,” the source clarified.

Noor field is in the offshore North Sinai Shorouk concession with 90 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas reserves, three times bigger than Zohr gas field.

Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla met on June 21 with Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, Chief Upstream Officer, Antonio Vella and General Manager of the Italian-Egyptian Oil Company (IEOC), affiliated to the Italian oil company Eni, Fabio Cavanna.

Eni CEO Descalzi said that his company seeks to pump investments of $3 billion in Egypt during the upcoming period.

Descalzi added that the total investments pumped in Noras and Zohr fields so far reached $8.4 billion, noting that 70 percent of the company’s investments exist in Egypt.

Minister of petroleum Molla announced earlier that production of Zohr gas field is going to be increased to reach 1.75 billion cubic feet per day in August after the completion of the third unit of gas treatment plant 10 days ahead of schedule.

Molla added that the completion of the third unit of the plant came in line with the implementation of the 30-inch marine pipeline from the wells to the land treatment plant, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of July.

The minister added that the field development, the entry of the accelerated production stage and the first and second production lines on the national network of gases, in addition to other development projects, contributed to increasing the rates of domestic production to about 6 billion cubic feet of gas per day.

In 2015, Eni discovered Zohr gas field, the biggest gas field in the Mediterranean, with an estimated production of 30 trillion cubic feet.

The second phase of Zohr gas field will add around 2 billion cubic feet per day to Egypt's production and will be completed before the end of the year, according to Minister of Petroleum Molla.

On the other hand, Cavanna said in April that gas production from the Noras gas field increased to around 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/day).

Egypt plans to stop importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) by the end of fiscal year 2017/2018 by adding 1.6 million cubic feet to its production from its latest gas discoveries, including West Delta’s Taurus and Libra fields, as well as the Atoll and Zohr gas fields.