Eni has been awarded two new exploration licenses in the competitive 2015 EGAS bid round, namely the North El Hammad and North Ras El Esh licenses in the Egyptian offshore of the Mediterranean Sea. The two blocks 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.
Eni has a 50% stake in North Ras El Esh, where it partners with BP (50%, operator); the Italian company has been awarded a 37.5% participating interest and operatorship in North El Hammad, where it partners with BP (37.5%) and Total (25%).
Eni has been present in Egypt since 1954 and is the main producer in the country (190,000 boe/d on average). In late August 2015, the company made a giant discovery, Zohr, which could hold a potential of 850 bcm (30 tcf) of lean gas in place, equivalent to almost 20 times the natural gas consumption of Egypt (44.4 bcm in 2014).