Page 10 - MEOG Week 47 2021

MEOG TENDERS MEOG

EXCLUSIVE

Lebanon revives

second licensing round

LEBANON THE Lebanese Petroleum Administration (LPA) In contrast to the first bid round the prequali-
has set a new deadline for bids and has resumed fication and bidding stages were combined, with
the promotion of the five blocks included in its BP and Spain’s Repsol having been touted as
second licensing round following a string of potential bidders.
delays last year. A consortium of European majors Total (now
The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID- TotalEnergies, 40%) and Eni (40%) and Russia’s
19) pandemic was blamed for delays to the bid- Novatek (20%) was awarded Blocks 4 and 9 dur-
ding deadline first from January 31, 2020 to April ing the first bid round and completed its first
30, then to June 1. Block 4 well early last year, but reported that no
Declining oil and gas prices then led the commercial discovery had been made.
Ministry of Energy and Water to postpone the Around 7-9% of Block 9 overlaps with a tri-
auction to “a later stage based on the LPA’s rec- angle of territory disputed with Israel, and amid
ommendation, [with] an objective to complete uproar from Lebanon’s southern neighbour
the Second Offshore Licensing Round before the Total said that it would seek to drill as far from
end of the year 2021,” according to the LPA. the offending area as possible.
However, the industry body this week pro- Like Block 9, Blocks 8 and 10 in the south of
moted the bid round at the subsurface-focused the EEZ lie within the area of contention with
PETEX conference in London and Middle East Israel and are also likely to provoke objections
Oil & Gas (MEOG) understands that the dead- from Tel Aviv as with the awarded licence.
line for bidding has now been moved to June 15, Block 5 covers uncontested territory to the
2022. north of Block 8, while Blocks 1 and 2 are in
The second bid round comprises Blocks the north of the EEZ and include portions of a
1, 2, 5, 8 and 10. Blocks 1, 8 and 10 were those 400-square km area disputed with neighbouring
unawarded in the first round between February Syria.
and November 2017, while Blocks 2 and 5 were All three southern blocks were previously
added to the final cabinet-approved list later. deemed prospective primarily for gas, while
The Lebanese Exclusive Economic Zone Block 1 was marketed as more likely to yield
(EEZ) is delineated into ten concession areas. oil.™

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