Eni Awarded Two New Licences Offshore Egypt

Eni has been awarded with two new exploration licenses located in the Egyptian offshore of the Mediterranean Sea, North El Hammad and North Ras El Esh, as a result of the competitive 2015 EGAS bid round.

The Italian company has been awarded a 37.5 percent participating interest and operatorship in North El Hammad, where it partners with BP (37.5 percent) and Total (25 percent), and a 50 percent participating interest in North Ras El Esh, where it partners with BP (50 percent) which will act as operator.

The two blocks, which will be managed by Eni’s subsidiary IEOC, are in the shallow waters of the Mediterranean Sea, facing the Nile Delta and located southwest of the Temsah area and west of the Baltim area, where Eni operates existing fields and production facilities.

The North El Hammad and North Ras El Esh blocks cover areas of 1,389 and 1,927 sq kms respectively.

In August Eni made a “world class supergiant gas discovery” at its Zohr prospect, in the deep waters of Egypt. The discovery could hold a potential of 30 trillion cubic feet of lean gas in place (5.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent in place) covering an area of about 100 square kilometres. Zohr is the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and in the Mediterranean Sea and could become one of the world’s largest natural-gas finds.