CAIRO – 9 December 2017: Pilot production from Zohr gas field has kicked off Saturday, with a production capacity of 300-500 million cubic feet a day, an informed source at the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) told Egypt Today.
Production has started two weeks earlier than the date specified by the Ministry of Petroleum, which announced that production will start by the end of December, the source said.
The Mediterranean’s largest gas field Zohr 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.
According to Petroleum Ministry’s official statements, total investments of Zohr are estimated at $4 billion.
Eni is the main operator of the project with a share of 60 percent, while the other two operators, Russian Rosneft and British Petroleum (BP), have portions of 30 percent and 10 percent respectively.
Petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla said in late November that Egypt will not import liquefied natural gas by the end of 2018, as all phases of the Zohr gas field will have been finished.
He added that Egypt will save nearly $1.5 billion annually when the field operates in full force, noting that by 2020 there will be plentiful supply of local natural gas to be exported and to be used in heavy and petrochemical industries.
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