Italian major Eni has completed the third and final sidetrack well at Egypt’s flagship Zohr gas field in the deep offshore Mediterranean, Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi announced on 29 October. The Zohr-9 well is expected to add 70mn cfd. The Zohr-6, the first of the three sidetracks, was completed in June and added 65mn cfd (MEES, 4 July). The second well, Zohr-13, was abandoned after encountering technical problems.
Cairo had been hoping the sidetracks would add around 200mn cfd to Zohr gas output. The field has been plagued with water breakthrough issues since 2021, when production peaked at 3.2bn cfd capacity in February that year (MEES, 11 June 2021). (CONTINUED - 192 WORDS)