US major ExxonMobil is looking for partners at its three recently-acquired exploration blocks in Egypt’s Mediterranean offshore. Fellow major Shell, Norway’s Equinor and Qatari state firm QP are the three firms that have expressed the most interest, MEES understands. Exxon has also tapped up BP and Petronas, who hold adjacent acreage, but both the UK major and Malaysian state firm rebuffed the US major’s overtures.
Exxon entered Egypt’s offshore in February 2019 when it was awarded the Northeast El Amriya block, to the northeast of Shell and Petronas’ (50:50) 400mn cfd West Delta Deep Marine fields (MEES, 15 February 2019). At the time Exxon managed to fend off rival bids from the WDDM partners as well as BP, French major Total and Italy’s Eni. It is unclear whether Total, another recent entry to the Egypt deepwater and Exxon’s partner south of Crete (MEES, 28 June 2019), or Egypt’s top gas producer Eni (sMEES, 29 January and MEES, 8 January), were approached. The two firms, alongside Exxon, are the key players off Cyprus to the north (MEES, 24 December 2020). (CONTINUED - 1474 WORDS)
