CAIRO (Reuters) – 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.

ENI announced in late August that it had discovered the largest known gas field in the Mediterranean off the Egyptian coast, predicting that the find could help meet the country’s energy needs for decades to come.