Italian Eni has produced its first gas from the supergiant Zohr field in a record time for this type of field of less than two and a half years, the company announced Wednesday.
According to the statement, the field, with potential resources in excess of 30 trillion cubic feet of gas in place, or about 5.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, started-up in less than two and a half years from its discovery.
The field is located in the Shorouk Block, offshore Egypt approximately 190 kilometers north of Port Said.
In February 2016, Zohr, which was discovered in August 2015, obtained investment authorization after just six months
"It is the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and in the Mediterranean Sea, and will be able to satisfy a part of Egypt’s natural gas demand for decades to come," the company said.
Zohr is one of Eni’s seven record-breaking projects, which have involved rapid development and production, and is testament to the success of Eni’s Dual Exploration Model, adopted in 2013.
According to the announcement, the approach is based on a simple principle: while the reserves of hydrocarbons grow through the exploration successes, Eni can benefit from early monetization thanks to the sale of minority stakes, all while maintaining operatorship of the asset.
"By parallelizing exploration, appraisal and development phases, the time-to-market is quicker, equity development cost are lowered, and Eni achieves an accelerated cash flow. This winning combination allowed Eni to generate $9 billion from its exploration activities between 2014 and 2017," the company said.
The Italian company holds a 60 percent stake in the Shorouk Block, Russia's Rosneft has a 30 percent share and BP has a 10 percent stake.
Eni has been present in Egypt since 1954, where it operates through its subsidiary IEOC Production BV. The company is the country’s main producer with an equity production of approximately 230,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
(Anadolu Agency)
