Italy’s Eni, a front-runner in Africa’s oil and gas industry, has announced the start-up of the second production unit (T-1) of the Zohr project, located in the off the coast of Egypt
The project is set to increase installed capacity by 400 mmscfd, about four months after the field’s start-up. Zohr now has a capacity of 800 mmscfd, equivalent to 150,000 boepd.
The production ramp-up is planned to continue, with the same exceptional performance, in order to reach 1.2 bcfd in May 2018, two bcfd by the end of 2018 and the production plateau (2.7 bcfd) in 2019.
The Zohr field, the largest gas discovery ever made in the Northe African country and in the Mediterranean Sea, is located offshore, within the Shorouk Block, about 190km north of Port Said.
Discovered in 2015, the gas field in Egypt started gas production in December 2017.
The latest achievement reinforces the exceptional development path of Zohr, one of Eni’s seven record-breaking projects, which is playing a fundamental role in supporting Egypt’s aim to cease LNG imports in 2018.
Eni holds a 60 per cent stake in the Shorouk Block, Rosneft 30 per cent and BP 10 per cent. In March 2018, Eni agreed to sell a 10 per cent stake in the concession to Mubadala Petroleum.
The project is executed by Petrobel, the operating company jointly held by Eni and the state corporation Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), on behalf of Petroshorouk, jointly held by Contractor (Eni and its partners) and the state company Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).
Present in Egypt since 1954, Eni has significant footprints in developing and exploring Africa’s oil and gas opportunities. Recently, Eni and Algeria’s Sonatrach have signed a series of agreement to collaborate in a number of oilfield projects and ramp up the North Africa country’s oil and gas production.
