BP Discovers New Oil and Gas in the Northern Mediterranean

UK-headquartered energy giant BP has found more oil and gas in the northern Mediterranean within the Egyptian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The announcement of BP’s new oil and gas discovery in King Mariout was made by Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Egypt’s Prime Minister, during a press conference on February 6, 2025.

Egypt’s Prime Minister has highlighted that this is “a promising discovery” but did not provide more information about it. However, he said the figures related to the discovery would be announced during the next phase.

According to Dr. Madbouly, the advantage of this discovery is that it is “a petroleum and gas discovery.” In addition, the composition in the area is said to indicate the existence of more than one discovery during the coming period.

Last month, BP finished drilling activities at two wells on the Raven field at the West Nile Delta (WND) concession. The firm intends to bring them online this month. To this end, BP selected Subsea Integration Alliance in May 2023 for the Raven Infills two-well tie-back project off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.

The company also confirmed that the Valaris-owned DS-12 drillship, which the oil major hired in November 2022 on a four-well contract for work offshore Egypt, moved to the next exploration endeavor at Elking in the East Mediterranean (East Med).

BP, which is actively optimizing its asset portfolio, has formed a new joint venture (JV), known as the BP-XRG JV, with ADNOC in Egypt to boost its gas portfolio. This JV will also play a part in enabling Egypt to drill 586 oil and gas wells by 2030, which is among the country’s investment goals.

Another energy giant, ExxonMobil, recently made a gas discovery in the western region of the Mediterranean Sea with another drillship owned by Valaris. In addition, Chevron was slated to drill the Khanjar-1 well and Eni was expected to resume drilling operations at the Zohr field.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s Prime Minister recently met with the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, to discuss oil cooperation between the two countries. The Egyptian Minister of Petroleum is expected to visit Iraq soon to discuss aspects of such a partnership with the Iraqi Minister of Oil.