On 9 December 2018, BP signed an agreement which has seen the company acquire 25% equity from Eni, in the Nour North Sinai Offshore PSC. The deal was agreed in early-December 2018. Further details on the transaction have not been disclosed. Alongside the deal, Mubadala Petroleum's previously reported acquisition of 20% equity from Eni in the block, has also been ratified.The 739 sq km un-explored concession lies ~50km offshore northern Sinai, in the Nile Delta Basin. It lies in water depths between 50-400m and covers acreage to the east of NOSPCO's Offshore North Sinai concession. The PSC was signed on 14 August 2018. The Council of Ministers approved the concession agreement on 9 May 2018, with the Energy and Environment Committee ratifying the licence on 8 July 2018. The PSC has a provisional 12-year term, split into two six-year periods. Up to US$ 105 million has been earmarked for investment, including a 3D seismic campaign and two wells. The first well, Nour 1, was spudded in late-September 2018. The Nour block is one of 13 tracts recently delineated by EGAS, across both the Nile Delta Basin and frontier western Mediterranean regions. Whilst the demarcated blocks are thought to have been identified ahead of a possible EGAS 2019 Bid Round, the award of Nour suggests that EGAS may also be offering the acreage under the highly-unusual open door process. Whilst this has not been a route taken by the NOC-entity in its 17-year history, the current hydrocarbon code does not explicitly prohibit such an offering. Indeed, the unusual nature of the process may have been the reason behind media reports in late June 2018, that Eni was to announce an astonishing 90 Tcf "Nour" gas discovery. In fact, no wells had been drilled on the block, despite it lying immediately east of the Kamose and Tao fields. The acreage has been previously held by Eni and Tharwa as the Thekah Offshore concession, which was relinquished in 2014. The area was also offered as part of the larger East Port Said Offshore block during the EGAS 2015 Bid Round. Following the completion of both transactions, equity in Nour is now split between Eni (40% +Op), BP (25%), Mubadala (20%) and Tharwa Petroleum (15%). 
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