CAIRO, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Egypt has awarded four new licencesto explore for oil and gas off its Mediterranean coast, weeksafter ENI's giant Zohr gas find piqued freshinternational interest in the area.
Egypt's state gas company EGAS said in a statement it hadawarded one licence to Britain's BP and one to Italy'sEdison. A consortium involving BP and ENI's Egyptiansubsidiary had also picked up a bloc as had another consortiuminvolving ENI, BP and France's Total.
ENI announced in late August that it had discovered thelargest known gas field in the Mediterranean off the Egyptiancoast, predicting that the find could help meet the country'senergy needs for decades to come.
(Reporting by Abdel Rahman Adel, Writing by Lin Noueihed,editing by Adrian Croft)