据路透社8月3日开罗报道,周五，埃及石油部长表示，壳牌公司位于埃及西尼罗河三角洲9B油田的两座深井将于10月上半月开始生产天然气。

Tarek El Molla在一份声明中表示，整个项目将在2019年下半年完成，计划日产量将达到4亿立方英尺。

这份声明没有说明前两口油井最初将生产多少天然气。

埃及在地中海发现了一系列重大天然气之后计划成为液化天然气交易的地区中心，预计到2018年底，埃及将实现天然气自给自足。

这些发现包括巨型祖哈尔海上气田。

意大利石油公司埃尼上周表示，祖哈尔的日生产能力为16亿立方英尺，到9月份将达到20亿立方英尺。

埃及今年2月发布了期待已久的行政法规，允许私营部门直接进口天然气，希望吸引私营部门更多地参与该国迅速扩张的天然气行业。

蔡小全 编译自 路透社

原文如下:

Gas production at Egypt's 9B field to begin in October

Production of natural gas from two deepwater wells at Shell's West Nile Delta field 9B in Egypt will begin in the first half of October, the country's petroleum minister said on Friday.

Tarek El Molla said in a statement the whole project, which includes several other wells being dug and linked to production, was set for completion in the second half of 2019 and that its output aims to reach 400 million cubic feet per day.

The statement did not say how much gas the first two wells would initially produce.

Egypt plans to become a regional hub for the trade of liquefied natural gas after a string of major discoveries in the Mediterranean that are expected to make Egypt self-sufficient in gas by the end of 2018.

The discoveries include the mammoth offshore Zohr gas field.

Italian oil company Eni said last week that the daily production capacity of Zohr stood at 1.6 billion cubic feet and would reach 2 billion by September.

Egypt in February issued long-awaited executive regulations to allow the private sector to import natural gas directly, hoping to attract greater private-sector participation in the country’s rapidly expanding gas sector.