Cyprus said on Dec. 21 that it chose Eni, Total and ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) for three oil and gas exploration licenses in the Mediterranean, close to where Eni made the biggest gas find in the past decade.

Cyprus' government awarded Eni and Total a joint exploration block, while Eni also won another on its own and a third went to ExxonMobil in partnership with Qatar Petroleum, the country's energy ministry said.

Statoil ASA (NYSE: STO) and Cairn, together with Israel's Avner and Delek, had also applied for licenses, but missed out.

Exploration opportunities in the Mediterranean's Levant Basin have become more interesting following Eni's discovery of the giant Zohr gas field offshore Egypt in 2015 that is estimated to contain 850 billion cubic meters of gas.

Eni has raised more than $2 billion in recent weeks, with stake sales in the concession containing Zohr to Rosneft and BP Plc (NYSE: BP).