The UAE's Sharjah National Oil Corp. and Eni have produced first gas from the Mahani field in Sharjah, one year after they announced the first onshore discovery in the country's third largest emirate in 37 years, the state-owned producer said Jan. 4.
The companies did not disclose the volumes produced from the Mahani-1 gas well. The well tested last year at flow rates of up to 50 MMcf/d alongside production of associated condensate, the companies said in January 2020. Eni is a partner with SNOC in the Mahani project located in Block B in Sharjah, one of the seven emirates in the UAE federation.
"In addition to starting production from Mahani, the planned work program will include further drilling in order to determine the extent of the structure," SNOC said in a statement.
SNOC, the operator of Block B, and Eni each hold a 50% stake in Mahani field as part of the Block B concession agreement signed in 2019 after the conclusion of Sharjah's first international license round. The two companies are also partners in the onshore concession areas A and C, where exploration is actively in progress, with Eni the operator.
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The UAE as a whole is boosting its gas production and made another major discovery in 2020 besides Mahani in Sharjah.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, the UAE's biggest energy company, and gas supplier Dubai Supply Authority will develop a new shallow gas reservoir with estimated in-place gas resources of 80 Tcf that was discovered along the Dubai-Abu Dhabi border in 2020.
Eni operates in offshore areas of Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah, another UAE emirate. Eni, which produced 3 Bcf of gas and 18 million barrels of oil and condensate in 2019 from its UAE operations, also owns 20% of ADNOC Refining, a joint venture with ADNOC and OMV. It also has a 20% stake in ADNOC Global Trading, a joint venture with ADNOC and OMV focused on refined products that started operations in December.
