LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - Energean, which focuses on the Eastern Mediterranean, said on Monday it had made an 8 billion cubic metre (bcm) natural gas discovery in its Athena exploration well off the Israeli coast and lying between its Karish and Tanin fields.

Athena could be developed by linking it to the floating production and storage vessel (FPSO) Energean plans to use to send gas into the Israeli market from Karish starting in the third quarter, the company said.

Athena could also form part of a new development of fields off the coast of Israel, it said, adding that initial data suggested the region the company calls the Olympus Area could contain 58 bcm of gas.

Energean said another option was to sell the gas to Egypt, by turning a memorandum of understanding to supply the country with 3 bcm a year into a binding deal.

(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Edmund Blair)