Italy’s Eni on 21 August announced that output from its flagship 21.5tcf Zohr gas field in Egypt’s deepwater Mediterranean has reached 2.7bn cfd. Initially Eni’s development plan for the field had 2.7bn cfd slated for plateau, to be reached by the end of 2019 but that was subsequently revised-up to 3.2bn cfd as output exceeded expectations (MEES, 12 April). This plateau hike, without an upward revision of recoverable reserves, implies a shortened lifespan for the field, knocking some six years off, according to MEES estimates (see chart 1).
Eni says the 2.7bn cfd output level was reached five months ahead of the initial development plan, after all eight of the onshore processing trains were brought online, the final one commissioned in April. This was followed in August by the start-up of dedicated sulfur removal units and the “production start-up of two wells in the southern culmination of the field (in addition to the 10 wells already drilled in the northern culmination) as well as the start-up on 18 August 2019 of the second 216km long 30-inch pipeline connecting the offshore subsea production facilities to the onshore treatment plant.” (CONTINUED - 779 WORDS)
