Egypt’s state gas firm EGAS this week awarded four of the 12 offshore blocks on offer in its latest bid round to the UK’s BP, Italian firms Eni and Edison and France’s Total, as the four firms look to add to their already well-established East-Mediterranean portfolios.
The awards come barely a month after Eni’s 30 tcf Zohr discovery in the Shorouk permit (MEES, 4 September). Tellingly the Italian firm will be involved in two of the new awarded blocks, North Ras El Esh (Block 4) along with BP, and North El Hammad (Block 7) with Total and BP. Block 4 is south of the 700mn cfd El Temsah field jointly operated by Eni and BP, and was previously held by the UK’s BG. Block 7 surrounds a number of BP and Eni development leases (see map). (CONTINUED - 772 WORDS)
