Eni brings Zohr on stream offshore Egypt

Eni SPA has brought Zohr, a giant Mediterranean Sea gas field, on stream on Shorouk block offshore Egypt. Production started less than 3 years after discovery, and Eni estimates Zohr has resources of more than 30 tcf (about 5.5 billion boe).

Previously Eni has said it expects production will reach about 75 million standard cu m/day of gas by 2019. The field lies in 1,500 m of water.

Claudio Descalzi, Eni chief executive officer, said Zohr will allow Egypt “to turn from an importer of natural gas into a future exporter.” Eni has 60% interest. Partners are Rosneft with 30% interest and BP PCL with 10% interest.

Eni is co-operator of Zohr through Petrobel, jointly held by Eni and the state Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. (EGPC), on behalf of Petroshorouk, jointly held by Eni and the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co. (Egas).

Zohr’s development was put on a fast track. Eni previously amended the project scope to add more onshore processing and pipeline capacities to accommodate its start-up timeline.

The accelerated 1-bcfd start-up phase involved production from subsea wells connecting via a gas pipeline to the onshore plant at Port Said (OGJ Online, Feb. 22, 2016).

The project’s second phase, or the accelerated ramp-up-to-plateau, will add more wells to bring the total to 20 wells, boosting production to 2.7 bcfd by yearend 2019.

Second-phase plans include another gas line as well as an additional onshore processing plant, Eni previously said.

The two gas processing plants will each host four processing trains of 350 MMcfd each.

An Italian operator, Eni reported its third-quarter production averaged 1.8 million boe/d, up about 5% from the same period last year. Executives anticipate four-quarter production to reach an average 1.9 million boe/d, which would be Eni’s highest output in 7 years.

Eni has worked in Egypt since 1954, where it operates through its subsidiary IEOC Production BV.