Egypt immediately awarded four blocks of an oil and gas exploration bid round in the Mediterranean and Nile Delta to Italy’s Eni, the UK’s BP, QatarEnergy and Russia’s Zarubezhneft, the Egyptian Petroleum Ministry announced on Tuesday.
Eni will take two of the blocks and a third in a coalition with BP and QatarEnergy, while Zarubezhneft will take the fourth.
On Monday the ministry opened international bidding for exploration of 23 open blocks with a Feb. 25 deadline, Reuters reported.
It includes areas in Egypt’s Western Desert, two in the Eastern Desert, seven in the Gulf of Suez and four in the Red Sea, the ministry said.
