President Michel Aoun Friday invited American companies to participate in Lebanon’s second bidding round for offshore oil and gas exploration, according to remarks published on his Twitter account.
Aoun’s comments came during talks at Baabda Palace with a U.S. congressional delegation.
Last week, Lebanon launched the second round of oil and gas exploration licensing, for maritime blocks 1, 2, 5, 8 and 10. The deadline for companies to submit their offers is Jan. 31, 2020, Energy Minister Nada Boustani said.
The first round of Lebanon’s licensing process saw blocks 4 and 9 awarded to a consortium of companies made up of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
The Lebanese Petroleum Administration plans to hold a road show in the near future to explain the importance of oil and gas exploration in Lebanon.
In 2013, a total of 46 companies were prequalified to bid in the first licensing round. But the process was halted after the government failed to ratify two decrees pertaining to the delineation of maritime blocks and contracts for exploration and production. Among the companies that prequalified at that time were U.S. oil companies ExxonMobile and Chevron.
But many international companies withdrew their interest due to the lengthy delays by the governments at that time in approving the two decrees.
Boustani said that drilling in Block 4, set to begin later this year, will take 45-60 days. In Block 9, she said, drilling will begin in May 2020, “and by then we would have signed the contracts for the second round.”
LPA chair Walid Nasr, who spoke alongside Boustani last Friday, said all documents related to the licensing round would be available on the LPA’s website.
The LPA head added that Lebanon has a strong chance of attracting international companies to invest in exploration due to its “promising” maritime geology, its position along the Mediterranean - which he said would also help in gas exporting in the future - and the fact that most of Cyprus’ maritime blocks have already been contracted.
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