Italian oil company Eni invested $3.5-4bn in implementing the Zohr natural gas production processing plant at a capacity of 2.7bn cubic feet of gas per day. Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla told Daily News Egypt that the total investments in Zohr field are estimated at $12bn until the point when production begins. Investments will then increase to $16bn over the life of the field. El-Molla explained that the company is currently working to facilitate the production processes related to receiving and processing the gas in Port Said. He stated that the capacity of the Shorouk gas processing plant is estimated at 2.7bn cubic feet of gas per day, and that the technical committee has currently received the land to start the construction process and link it to the gas reception plant in the area. Eni targets to connect about 900m cubic feet of gas per day with the national grid by the end of 2017 or in the first quarter of 2018. The project's production rate should reach 2.7bn cubic feet of gas per day by 2020. El-Molla pointed out that Eni is currently excavating the Zohr-5 well, and the Saipem 10,000 rig moved to the work area in June. He added that the first phase of the field's development includes drilling six developmental wells, to start production at the end of 2017 at a rate of 900m cubic feet of gas per day. The estimated cost of drilling one well in Zohr concession in the Mediterranean Sea's deep water is roughly $100m. El-Molla said that the work in the Zohr field developing project is in full swing. This includes both the drilling of the developmental wells and the construction works on land to receive and process the gases from Zohr field, in order to put it on the production map, according to the scheduled programmes. The results achieved in the drilled wells so far are positive and promising, he said. The Shorouk concession development agreement signed between the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) and Eni states that 40% of the value of the total gas discovered will be set aside for the return of the foreign partner's investment in the project, which includes research and development. The remaining ratio, after deducting the import dues, represents 60% of total production, which will be distributed in turn as 65% to the Egyptian government and 35% to Eni.
