Mubadala Petroleum, owned by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, has completed the acquisition of a 10 per cent participating interest in the offshore Shorouk Concession in Egypt from Italian energy major Eni.

The Shorouk Concession contains the supergiant Zohr gas field.

Following Mubadala’s acquisition, Eni, through its subsidiary IEOC, holds a 50 per cent interest in the concession.

The other partners in the concession are Russia’s Rosneft with a 30 per cent interest and the UK’s BP with a 10 per cent interest.

The stake acquisition marks Mubadala’s entry into Egypt.

The Zohr field was discovered by Eni in August 2015 and is the largest natural gas field ever found in the Mediterranean, with a total potential of up to 30 trillion cubic feet of gas in place.

The field is located about 190 kilometres north of Port Said in waters approximately 1,500 metres deep.

The project was delivered in record time as production in the first phase of the Zohr gas field commenced in December 2017.

The field currently produces over 1.1 billion cubic feet of gas a day (cf/d).

Production is expected to increase to 2 billion cf/d by 2018-end and reach a production plateau of 2.7 billion cf/d by the end of 2019.