São Paulo – Lebanese minister of Energy Nada Boustani (picture) published on Twitter this Thursday (4) that the government approved a second offshore licensing round for offshore energy exploration and production, with bids due to January 31, 2020.
Lebanon awarded a first license for offshore oil and gas exploration and production last year to a consortium comprising France’s Total, Italy’s Eni, and Russia’s Novatek, which aims to drill its first well by the end of this year.
The Lebanese Petroleum Administration (LPA), the government agency that manages the sector, recommended four offshore blocks to be included in the second licensing round, but Boustani did not say if they had been approved.
One of the blocks awarded last year in the first licensing round was located on the maritime border with Israel, but the consortium said it was not drilling near the disputed waters.
Lebanon is on the Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean where several big sub-sea gas fields have been discovered since 2009 in Cypriot, Israeli and Egyptian waters.
Beirut tried to launch its first offshore exploration in 2013, but domestic political problems delayed it until 2017.
Offshore energy development has been a central ambition for successive governments in Lebanon as an attempt to improve local economy performance.
*With information from Zawya, Middle East news website.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
