A New Zohr Field in Egypt: An International Company Anticipates a Huge Discovery

Zohr Field Platform - Photo from the Ministry of Petroleum

A New Zohr Field in Egypt: An International Company Anticipates a Huge Discovery

An international company is looking forward to making a new Zohr field discovery in Egypt, expressing optimism about the gas-rich potential of the deep waters of the Mediterranean. According to the details, ExxonMobil is planning several drilling opportunities in 2026 and 2027, which, if successful, could represent discoveries similar to Zohr or slightly smaller.

Egypt witnessed a renaissance in exploration when Eni announced the Zohr gas discovery in August 2015 in the deep-water Shorouk concession, a discovery ExxonMobil seeks to replicate in the coming period. John Ardell, the company's head of global exploration, spoke about the advantages of gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean that transcend national borders. With this in mind, ExxonMobil discussed offshore exploration prospects in Egypt and Cyprus.

A New Zohr Field in Egypt

Commenting on the prospects for gas exploration in Egypt, ExxonMobil's President of Global Exploration, John Ardell, said: "If successful, these prospects could represent a new Zohr field discovery in Egypt, or they could be a little smaller, but there are several, so overall, they could be bigger."

Ardell added, on the sidelines of his participation in the Energy Intelligence Forum held in London: "We don't know yet... but the important thing is that we have prospects there competing in our portfolio for drilling." According to details reviewed by Energy Platform, Eni has estimated the Zohr field's reserves at over 30 trillion cubic feet, while geological firm C&C Reservoirs has initially estimated the ultimate recovery at 21.5 trillion cubic feet, making Zohr quickly become the largest gas field in the Mediterranean.

Since then, a group of major oil companies, including American companies ExxonMobil and Chevron, have secured vast areas across the Eastern Mediterranean, seeking significant gas discoveries that would support regionally linked gas exports. During 2023 and 2024, ExxonMobil conducted a 10,000-kilometer 3D seismic survey in the outer Nile Delta region in collaboration with PGS, primarily across its Cairo and Misry offshore blocks in Egypt.

Zohr natural gas field in Egypt                                   

Gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean

ExxonMobil's president of global exploration, John Ardell, says that gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean do not respect national borders, and ExxonMobil has explored offshore exploration prospects in Egypt and Cyprus with this in mind.

ExxonMobil's Pegasus and Glaucus offshore discoveries in Cyprus—discovered in July 2025 and 2019, respectively—could contain up to 9 trillion cubic feet of gas, based on preliminary data released by the Cypriot Ministry of Energy. The American oil giant's Cypriot Blocks 5 and 10, where the Pegasus and Glaucus fields were discovered, are located close to its Cairo and Misri blocks in Egypt. Cyprus has so far recorded six significant discoveries: Aphrodite, Calypso, Glaucus, Kronos, Zeus, and now Pegasus.

Cypriot Energy Minister George Papanastasiou stated at an industry conference in Nicosia that Cyprus currently has several monetization options, including floating LNG and standard LNG for an onshore facility. However, the energy sector consensus, including Eni and ExxonMobil, which own offshore acreage off Cyprus and Egypt, increasingly sees the flow of gas into Egypt's existing LNG infrastructure on the Mediterranean coast as the most cost-effective option for profitability.

Discussing Egypt's future prospects, Ardell emphasized the regional approach, saying, "The concept is similar geology, a similar path to value creation, and leveraging the infrastructure of several countries for mutual benefit." Engineer Karim Badawi emphasized that the signing of the agreements is the culmination of successful understandings between President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, and the cooperation between the two countries to accelerate the connection of Cyprus' gas fields to Egypt's infrastructure.

Badawi added that the agreements enhance Egypt's role as a regional hub for natural gas trade and trading in the Eastern Mediterranean, in addition to supporting Cyprus' efforts to exploit its natural gas resources and export them to global markets through Egyptian infrastructure. On the sidelines of the conference, the Kronos Field project tariff agreement was initialed between the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and the global companies Eni and TotalEnergies.