Cairo, Egypt | – The CEO of Russia’s multinational oil and gas company, Rosneft, Igor Sechin has revealed that the first commercial production of gas from the Egyptian field of Zohr will begin by the end of 2017.
The declarations of Igor Sechin occurred during a meeting held Monday night with the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, as reported by Egyptian state news agency Mena.
Zohr oilfiled, discovered by the Italian oil company Eni in 2015, is the largest deposit of natural gas in the Mediterranean. It is estimated that it houses about 850 billion cubic meters of gas.
In December 2016, Rosneft acquired a stake of 30 percent of the Shorouk concession, off the Egyptian North Coast, which contains the gas field of Zohr.
In February 2017, the Ministry of Petroleum of Egypt, the Italian company Eni, and British Petroleum (BP) signed an agreement to complete the sale to BP of a stake of 10 percent from the deposit in Zohr.
The production of natural gas in Egypt is estimated at around 4.4 billion cubic feet per day (about 125 million cubic meters), and is expected to increase to 1.5 billion more by the end of 2017, according to a statement from the Ministry of Petroleum.
