Oil Ministry advises caution on reports of the size of the Noor field: Oil Minister Tarek El Molla pulled the brakes on reports on reserve figures on the Noor gas field off the coast of North Sinai. He tells Youm7 that the numbers being reported are not official and are not sanctioned by the Oil Ministry. The local and international press had caused a stir last week with reports that Italy’s Eni could unlock as much as 90 tcf of natural gas reserves from the Noor field, would make it about 3x the size of the supergiant Zohr gas field, if true. El Molla noted that the concession agreements for the field have yet to be ratified by the House of Representatives, so Eni would not have even started operations on the field yet.

A source in the industry tells that while the seismic studies are still in progress, drilling of the well won’t take place until later this year — and won’t reach its planned target depth before early January 2019. The source also points out that “on average, exploration wells have a success rate of around 20-25%,” calling it “absolutely extraordinary and extremely unlikely” that it would yield a mega-find on the scale suggested by the press last week.