Developments in Egypt s giant gas field Zohr reached 83.5 percent as of August, the county s petroleum ministry said in a Monday emailed statement.
Work on developing the field, which was discovered by Italian oil company Eni, aims to link the wells of the first stage to produce the targeted gas on time, the head of Petro Shourouk, which is working on the developments, told the petroleum minister in a meeting.
Seven wells have been dug so far and their production quotas have been confirmed, the company s head Atef Hassan added.
Zohr is expected to produce some 500 million square feet (46.5 million cubic metres) of gas by the end of 2017, Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said earlier this month.
Total output from the field by the end of Eni s project is estimated to reach 2.7 billion square feet (250.8 million cubic metres), Descalzi added.
The company s chief said that half of Eni s 2018 investment, amounting to $3.5 billion, will be pumped into Egypt.
Once an energy exporter, Egypt s domestic production has failed to keep pace with growing demand in recent years, forcing the country to resort to imports.
The field should help alleviate Egypt s severe energy shortage and save the country billions of dollars spent on imports.
