Reporting by Ali Abdelaty; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Louise Heavens
CAIRO Nov 21 (Reuters) - Italian oil major Eni said its Egypt Nooros field is a producing almost 900 million cubic feet of gas per day and will top 1 billion cubic feet per day in the first quarter of 2017, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported.
Once an energy exporter, Egypt has turned into a net importer in recent years, squeezed by declining production and increasing consumption.
It is racing to reverse that trend, speeding up the development of major gas discoveries with a stated goal of achieving energy self-sufficiency by 2020.
Eni began production at its Nile Delta offshore field Nooros in September 2015.
It said previously that it expected peak production capacity of about 160,000 barrels of oil equivalent (928 million cubic feet) per day in the spring of 2017.
Egypt's domestic gas production is currently about 4.35 billion cubic feet per day compared with consumption of around 5.2 billion, oil minister Tarek El Molla said last month.
Eni's giant Mediterranean gas field Zohr, discovered in August 2015 with an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, is expected to come online next year and produce about 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day in 2017.
© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved
SOURCE
CAIRO Nov 21 (Reuters) - Italian oil major Eni said its Egypt Nooros field is a producing almost 900 million cubic feet of gas per day and will top 1 billion cubic feet per day in the first quarter of 2017, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported.
Once an energy exporter, Egypt has turned into a net importer in recent years, squeezed by declining production and increasing consumption.
It is racing to reverse that trend, speeding up the development of major gas discoveries with a stated goal of achieving energy self-sufficiency by 2020.
Eni began production at its Nile Delta offshore field Nooros in September 2015.
It said previously that it expected peak production capacity of about 160,000 barrels of oil equivalent (928 million cubic feet) per day in the spring of 2017.
Egypt's domestic gas production is currently about 4.35 billion cubic feet per day compared with consumption of around 5.2 billion, oil minister Tarek El Molla said last month.
Eni's giant Mediterranean gas field Zohr, discovered in August 2015 with an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, is expected to come online next year and produce about 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day in 2017.
© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved
SOURCE
