Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Karim Badawi said that the Zohr natural gas field in the Mediterranean will witness work to drill new wells, through the Italian company Eni, during the coming period.
A statement from the ministry quoted Badawi as saying that this aims to develop gas reserves and exploit opportunities to increase gas production rates again from the field, which is of great importance in Egypt.
A joint project emerged between Eni, BP, Russia’s Rosneft, and the UAE’s Mubadala Energy, in addition to the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).
The field, located in the Mediterranean Sea, is operated by Petrobel, a joint venture between Italy’s Eni and the state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation.
Field investments
The ministry’s statement quoted Khaled Mowafi, head of Petro Shorouk Company, which operates in the Zohr field concession area, as saying that the work carried out during the fiscal year 2023-2024 “contributed to maintaining an average production of about two billion cubic feet of gas per day.”
He added, “The volume of investments in field activities amounted to more than $677 million during the year, while preparations are being made to drill two new wells in the first quarter of 2025.”
Eni’s director in Egypt, Francesco Gaspari, said that the necessary measures are currently being taken to launch a campaign to drill new wells with modern technology in deep water in the field’s concession area.
The Egyptian Council of Ministers estimated last July that the total investments in the field had reached 12 billion dollars so far, and it is expected to reach 15 billion during the next three years, and that work had begun to drill well No. 20 in the field with investments of 70 million dollars, which Zohr production is expected to reach 2.3 billion cubic feet per day.
Eni discovered the field in 2015 and production began in late 2017. It contains an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.
In a press conference last month, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said that Egypt aims to restore the production of the natural gas field to its usual levels by next summer, indicating that the government is moving to settle its arrears with production companies.
Madbouly attributed the decrease in production to arrears, but he did not mention the size of the amounts owed by the government, nor did he reveal the date of payment.
Reuters quoted sources last March as saying that the government allocated up to $1.5 billion for payments to foreign oil and gas companies operating in the country, and arrears accumulated in light of the long-standing foreign exchange scarcity, which has decreased in severity.
