Page 12 - MEOG Week 36 2022

MEOG NEWS IN BRIEF MEOG

POLICY revenues this year, the government has, territory under Lebanon’s previous Line 23
however, relented somewhat in the face of claim. Lebanon’s proposal has reportedly
South Pars Gas Co. demands. It announced last month that shifted in recent months to somewhere in
some salaries would be raised by 10%. That’s
between, with Beirut wanting all of Blocks 8
employees arrested for progress, but not so much progress, given that and 9 - which abut the Line 23 claim - plus
additional territory that covers the portion
official annual inflation stands at 52%.
protesting NEWSBASE of the Block 9 Qana prospect that extends
beyond Line 23, according to a source close to
A group of 67 workers from Iran’s South Pars Potential for breakthrough Hezbollah.
Gas Company were arrested over the weekend A deal will facilitate production in Israel,
after travelling to Tehran from the southern for Israel-Lebanon Dispute but it won’t necessarily mean a rapid boon for
city of Bushehr to hold a demonstration in Lebanon, currently suffering an energy and
front of the Ministry of Petroleum (MoP). The planned September start-up of Israel’s economic crisis.
The planned protest over insufficient wages offshore Karish gas field has injected fresh For Israel, the Karish development comes
and other grievances, according to the Free momentum into efforts to resolve a decades- at an opportune time - if it can be done
Union of Iranian Workers. old maritime dispute between Lebanon and without triggering conflict. Europe’s desire
The union wrote on social media that Israel. Escalating rhetoric between Israel and to wean itself off Russian gas after Moscow’s
the protesting employees were confronted Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah decision to invade Ukraine has reopened a
by security and police forces. Their mobile in June gave way to a concerted shuttle possible market for Mediterranean gas.
phones were confiscated and some were taken diplomacy carried out by US Energy Envoy The prospects for Lebanon are less clear.
to a detention centre, it added. Unfair working Amos Hochstein between the Israeli and The TotalEnergies-led consortium that holds
hours, high taxes, low quality health-care Lebanese governments. Negotiators are now Block 9 won’t drill in disputed territory,
services and the government’s failure to put in “closer than ever” to a deal, as a US official Energy Intelligence understands, leaving
place approved laws were other matters raised puts it, but talks have fallen apart before. Qana’s prospectivity unknown.
by the workers, who carried placards. The current Lebanese border proposal Private Russian firm Novatek is also
In recent months, pensioners, teachers, stops short of territory that encompasses the planning to leave the consortium, which also
retired government employees, bus drivers Karish field that Israel is developing, marking includes Italy’s Eni. And major oil and gas
and oil workers have been among groups that a retreat from a more expansive claim Beirut firms are having trouble commercializing
have held street protests in Iran to protest made in 2020. even massive proven reserves - witness Total’s
against conditions that cause economic Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has troubled Mozambique LNG development.
hardship. repeatedly threatened Israeli development of Still, “there’s enough of an argument that if
The protests have become so frequent that Karish - and other Israeli platforms - since things go well and the natural gas reserves
there is even speculation that the situation London-listed Energean’s floating production, are there, they can be used for the Lebanese
might persuade the regime that securing storage and offloading vessel arrived at the people in the medium and long term,” the
a relaunch of the 2015 nuclear deal with field in early June. Parts of Karish sit north of International Crisis Group’s David Wood said.
major powers, and triggering the economic Lebanon’s Line 29 claim, put forward in late Egyptian gas supplied via the Arab Gas
bounce that should come with that, is in Iran’s 2020. Pipeline could yet offer nearer-term relief.
interests. The field, where output is targeted at 630 Lebanon, Syria and Egypt have agreed for
Boasting higher oil and other export million cubic feet per day, was not in disputed state Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co. (Egas)

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 36 07•September•2022