Egypt: Alarming Gas Output Decline Highlighted By Zohr Slump

14 Apr 2023 Issue: 66 / 15 By: Peter Stevenson

Output from Eni’s flagship Zohr field slumped 11% last year to 2.45bn cfd. This drove down Egypt’s overall gas output, which has continued to fall in 2023, and which will impact volumes available to be exported as LNG.

Gas output from Italian firm Eni’s flagship 21.5tcf Zohr gas field was down 11% to 2.45bn cfd from 2021’s record 2.74bn cfd, MEES learns. This is 6% down on the 2.6bn cfd output cap placed on the field in September 2021 and some 23% down on the field’s nominal 3.2bn cfd capacity, indicating that water breakthrough remained an issue last year.

And MEES learns from a source at state gas firm Egas that output at the beginning of April slipped to just 2.1bn cfd, although this appears to be a temporary blip with Eni telling MEES that Zohr output is currently between 2.4-2.5bn cfd. Even then, it remains well below previously planned plateau levels. Any outages at Zohr will be of concern to Egypt, after the country’s gas output dropped to a 28-month low 6.132bn cfd for February (MEES, 7 April). (CONTINUED - 1747 WORDS)