Lebanese Ministry of Information
Lebanese Energy Minister, Nada Boustani promised on Tuesday that the oil and gas sector will develop and operate with total transparency.
During the opening of a workshop with international petroleum countries, the minister said “the government and the Energy and Water Ministry is committed to following up on the development of Lebanon’s petrol sector with transparency,” according to tweets from her official account.
Boustani said that this transparency would help attract global companies to invest in Lebanon’s coastal waters.
Lebanese government signed its first contract to drill for oil and gas in its waters in 2018, with an international consortium of petroleum companies– French Total, Italian Eni and Russian Novatek – for two of the ten Lebanon blocks (block 4 and block 9). Drilling in Block 4 and 9 is set to begin respectively in December and in May 2020.
Lebanon opened bids for five more blocks in April, 1, 2, 5, 8 and 10, which will close in January 2020.
Companies must submit to the Lebanese Petroleum Administration a report documenting the number of wells it plans to build in the first three-year exploratory phase, as well as a technical assessment of their drilling and exploration methods and a geological survey of Lebanon’s seabed, in order to be awarded the contract.
Many of the blocks fall in disputed waters: 1 and 2 fall along Lebanon’s border with Syria, while 8 and 10 line the border with Israel, which also claims parts of Block 9.
A source close to the Lebanese Petroleum Administration said there were potential “cross border deposits” between Lebanon and Cyprus in block 5.
Boustani said that the ministry of Energy was working with the Foreign Ministry and the Lebanese Petroleum Administration to draw up bilateral agreements with Cyprus and Egypt to determine the next steps for exploration in shared oil fields.
THE DAILY STAR
