Italian multinational oil and gas company Eni has confirmed the 30 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) original gas in place (OGIP) of the Zohr field gas field located offshore Egypt.

The confirmation follows completion of successful drilling of fifth well, Zohr 5x, on Zohr structure. Zohr 5x is 12km southwest of the Zohr 1x well.

Located in 1,538m of water depth and 12km south west from the discovery well Zohr 1x, the Zohr 5x well was drilled to a total depth of 14,271ft.

Eni said that the well encountered about 590ft of continuous hydrocarbon column in the carbonate sequence with excellent reservoir characteristics.

Additionally, the well tested opening 90 m of reservoir section to production.

The tests confirmed the great deliverability of the Zohr reservoir producing more than 50 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) limited by the constraints of the drilling ship production facilities. It is in line with the Zohr 2 well test.

Eni estimates the well to deliver up to 250 mmscf per day in the production configuration.

In order to ensure the start up production rate of 1 bcf per day, the company will drill sixth well on Zohr in 2016.

Production from the Zohr field is planned to commence by the end of 2017 and is expected to reach about 75 million standard cubic meters of gas per day.

Eni estimates that the field could be one of the largest natural-gas discoveries in the world and has potential to meet the natural gas demand in Egypt for decades upon full development.

Eni owns a 100% stake in the Shorouk license. The property is operated by Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel), a joint venture between IEOC and Egyptian General Petroleum (EGPC).