Italian firm Eni has been granted the approval it needs to develop the massive Zohr gas field, in the Shorouk concession, offshore Egypt. In a statement released February 21, Eni said that the Egyptian oil ministry approved the Zohr development lease granted to Eni by the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (Egas). The approval means that Eni can now begin to develop the Zohr gas field, one of the world's largest gas fields. The field is estimated to have about 30 trillion ft3 of lean gas in place, Eni said. Though the discovery of the Zohr field was only made in August 2015, Eni expects start-up of the field to be quick. According to Eni, its development plan for the field envisages the start of production by the end of 2017, with a progressive ramp up to production of about 75mn m3/d by 2019. It credits its cooperation with Petrojet, Enppi and Saipem contractors for its ability to realise start-up so quickly. Petrojet is an Egyptian state-owned oil and gas engineering firm. Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation owns 97%. Enppi, based in Cairo, provides engineering, procurement and construction supervision for the energy sector. One well has already been drilled on the field: Zohr-1, which made the initial discovery. According to Eni, Zohr-2 is now in the drilling phase as the field's first appraisal well.
