Tarek El Molla, the Minister of Petroleum, announced that the production capacity of Zohr gas field has raised to 2.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d), five months ahead of the scheduled date, Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

This came after the establishment of the second submarine pipeline with a diameter of 30 inches and a length of 215 kilometer (km). The pipeline started being fully-functional by mid-August and connected the southern wells in Zohr to its total 12 production wells, indicating that Zohr’s current production rate is 8 times as two years ago.

The completion and optimization of the pipeline, along with increasing the plant treatment capacity, paves the way to a boom by the year end, where the field’s potential production could rate up to 3.2 bcf/d against the planned 2.7 bcf/d, Eni said in a statement.

Atef Hassan, Petrobel Chairman, stated that the company also succeeded to add the production of the first phase and increase capacity after eight onshore treatment production units and an all-Sulphur production unit have been completed. In addition, an offshore control platform was developed to accommodate the 160 km long second electro-hydraulic cable that was completed last March to control Zohr’s southern wells.