Page 13 - MEOG Week 24

MEOG ProJeCts & ComPanies MEOG
Lebanon courts majors as it prepares for drilling
LeBanon
a consortium of European majors Total and Eni and Russia’s Novatek is set to begin drilling o - shore Lebanon by the end of the year, with other major players showing interest in the country.
The Total-led consortium was awarded blocks 4 and 9 during the ve-block bid round between February and November 2017 and intends to begin exploratory drilling in the for- mer in December.
Block 9 overlaps with an 890 square km tri- angle of territory disputed with Israel, and amid uproar from Lebanon’s southern neighbour Total previously said that it would seek to drill as far from the o ending area as possible.
Lebanon launched its second international licensing round in early april, following cabinet approval for a ve-block o shore auction and Energy Minister Nada Boustani last week said that rms including Gazprom, Lukoil and BP have each made visits to Beirut. She added that Total, Eni and Novatek had also expressed inter- est in the latest auction.
In December 2018, the LPa announced that a recommendation of four blocks had been sub- mitted to cabinet for inclusion in the second round. Blocks 1, 8 and 10 were those not awarded in the rst round while block 5 was to be newly included and block 2 was also belatedly added
to the nal cabinet-approved list. e Lebanese Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is delineated into ten concession areas.
In contrast to the rst bid round, the prequali- cation and bidding stages have been combined, with a deadline for submissions set at January 31, 2020.
a wide slate of 51 companies was adjudged only two years ago to meet the quali cation cri- teria for the rst round. erefore, the process of con rming the continued eligibility of those still interested in participation should be relatively straightforward.
Boustani took to Twitter last week to note BP’s interest in the second bid round and has previously spoken of Spain’s Repsol having vis- ited the country.
Like block 9, blocks 8 and 10 lie in the south of the EEZ within the area of contention with Israel and are also likely to provoke objections from Tel aviv as with the awarded licence. Block 5 covers uncontested territory to the north of block 8 while blocks 1 and 2 are in the north of the EEZ and include portions of a 400 square km area disputed with neighbouring Syria. all three southern blocks were previously deemed prospective primarily for gas while block 1 was marketed as more likely to yield oil.™
PriCes
Date
WTI (US$)
ICE Brent (US$)
DME Oman (US$)
OPEC Basket (US$)
11 June
--
62.29
61.38
62.56
12 June
51.37
62.01
59.03
61.01
13 June
52.54
61.31
60.35
61.51
14 June
52.7
62.01
60.90
61.25
17 June
52.17
60.94
59.95
61.60
Week 24 18•June•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P13