EGYPT'S ZOHR WILL COME

BLOOMBERG - Pilot production at Egypt's Eni SpA-operated Zohr natural gas field will begin "in the coming few days," the oil ministry said, as the country nears its goal of commercial output from the biggest gas discovery in the Mediterranean Sea by the end of this year.

Gas is being pumped from the national distribution system to test pipelines in preparation for output from the offshore field, Oil Minister Tarek El-Molla said Sunday in an emailed statement. Production will start before year-end at about 350 million cubic feet per day, he said. Output will rise to some 1 billion cubic feet per day by mid-2018 and reach 2.7 billion by the end of 2019, the ministry said Dec. 1 by email.

Zohr marks a turning point that would spell an end to the tenders that suppliers from Glencore Plc to Trafigura PTE Ltd. have won in past years. Once it starts producing, the field will help end Egypt's reliance on imported liquefied natural gas next year and may eventually enable the North African nation to export gas, El-Molla said last month in an interview.

Gas from Zohr will also help ease pressure on the economy of the most populous Arab nation, which has been plagued by a shortage of foreign currency since a 2011 uprising. Zohr, which Eni discovered in August 2015, has an estimated reserve of about 850 billion cubic meters of natural gas in place.

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Earlier:

2017, October, 13, 12:35:00 ROSNEFT - ENI GAS DEAL Rosneft closed the deal to acquire a 30% stake in the concessions agreement for the development of Zohr field, the largest gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, from Italian company Eni S.p.A. Русский | English

2016, December, 12, 18:35:00 ENI - ROSNEFT DEAL Eni has agreed a $1.125bn deal to sell a 30 per cent stake in its giant Egyptian gas field Zohr to Rosneft, as the Italian company continues efforts to monetise the recently-discovered field.

2016, November, 28, 18:30:00 BP BUYS 10% BP announced that it has agreed to buy from Eni a 10% interest in the Shorouk concession offshore Egypt, which contains the super-giant Zohr gas field, for $375 million.

2016, August, 15, 18:35:00 ENI SELLS ZOHR Eni owns the whole of Zohr and has said it is interested in bringing in partners as part of its strategy of selling some of its prize acreage to help meet a target of raising 5 billion euros from asset disposal over the next two years.

2016, July, 7, 18:00:00 SAIPEM CONTRACT: $1.5 BLN Eni engineering and construction subsidiary Saipem on Thursday announced the award of offshore engineering and construction contracts with a combined value of more than USD 1.5 billion, including work related to the Zohr gasfield development project in Egyptian waters.

2016, July, 6, 18:00:00 ENI & CYPRUS COOPERATION Eni is the operator of the giant Zohr field offshore Egypt, which is close to the boundary with Cyprus. It is due to start up in 2017, with domestic demand expected to account for some of the output.

2015, August, 31, 18:55:00 ENI DISCOVERS EGYPT Eni has made a world class supergiant gas discovery at its Zohr Prospect, in the deep waters of Egypt. The discovery could hold a potential of 30 trillion cubic feet of lean gas in place covering an area of about 100 square kilometres.