Egypt awards four offshore oil and gas exploration licences

Egypt has awarded four new licences to explore for oil and gas off its Mediterranean coast, weeks after Eni's giant Zohr gas find piqued fresh international interest in the area.

Egypt's state gas company EGAS said in a statement it had awarded one licence to Britain's BP and one to Italy's Edison. A consortium involving BP and Eni's Egyptian subsidiary had also picked up a bloc as had another consortium involving Eni, BP and France's Total.

EGAS head Khaled Abdel Badie told Reuters after the announcement that Egypt was preparing to launch a new bidding round for offshore gas exploration in the Mediterranean in the first half of 2016.

Eni announced in late August it had discovered the largest known gas field in the Mediterranean off the Egyptian coast.

The Italian major predicts the Zohr field could hold 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, covering an area of about 100 square kilometres (39 square miles). It could be a game-changer for Egypt, whose $3.5 billion debts to foreign energy companies had made it increasingly difficult to attract major investments.