Egypt’s EGAS has awarded four exploratory oil and gas licences for blocks located off its Mediterranean coast, the state-owned gas company said in a statement Tuesday.

Egypt awards four offshore licences

CAIRO, October 7, 2015 – Egypt’s EGAS has awarded four exploratory oil and gas licences for blocks located off its Mediterranean coast, the state-owned gas company said in a statement Tuesday.

EGAS awarded one licence to BP and one to Italian energy company Edison. The other two blocks were handed to two consortiums, one of which was composed of Eni, BP and Total and the other with BP and Eni’s Egyptian subsidiary.

Khaled Abdel Badie, head of EGAS, also told Reuters on Tuesday that the country plans to start a new bidding round for offshore exploratory licences in 2016.

This development comes weeks after Eni announced an estimated 850 bcm (30 tcf) at the Zohr gasfield, the largest in Egypt’s Mediterranean offshore.

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