Egypt‘s giant offshore Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean is set to begin production by year-end and would initially yield 350mn cubic feet per day (mcf/d), the country’s Petroleum Ministry has stated, according to a Reuters report.
Production would increase to around 1 bcf/d by mid-2018, it said. Egypt’s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said in September that the Zohr gas field was set to produce 500 mcf/d by the end of 2017.
The Zohr field was discovered in 2015 by Italy‘s Eni, with an estimated 30tn cubic feet of gas in total reserves.
Egypt’s own natural gas output rose to about 5.1 bcf/d in 2017 from 4.4 bcf/d in 2016, with the start of production from the first phase of BP‘s BP.L North Alexandria project.
The country has been seeking to accelerate production from recently discovered fields, with an eye to halting imports by 2019 and achieving self-sufficiency.