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Aoun calls on Macron to urge TotalEnergies to 'resume' oil exploration in Lebanon

Aoun calls on Macron to urge TotalEnergies to 'resume' oil exploration in Lebanon

The Transocean Barents drilling rig arrived in Lebanese territorial waters on August 16, 2023, in search of offshore gas. (Credit: TotalEnergies archive photo/AFP)

BEIRUT — Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday at Baabda Palace during Macron’s one-day visit to Lebanon, where they discussed offshore hydrocarbons. Aoun urged Macron to encourage French energy firm TotalEnergies to resume its exploration operations in Lebanon’s offshore oil blocks, local channel LBC reported

The long-delayed exploration efforts have been hindered by various factors, including the war in Gaza and Hezbollah's involvement in southern Lebanon. Tensions along the Lebanese-Israeli border escalated when the first shots were fired, impacting three of Lebanon's southernmost maritime blocks in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), specifically blocks 8, 9 and 10.

The consortium — TotalEnergies, Italy's Eni and QatarEnergy — hold exploration and exploitation licenses for two of the ten blocks in the EEZ. However, their efforts have yielded inconclusive results. Two drillings in Block 4 in 2020, off the coast of Batroun in northern Lebanon, yielded inconclusive results and found insufficient traces of gas. Similarly, no gas was discovered in Block 9, located in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel.

Exploration of Block 9 was previously blocked due to a border dispute between Lebanon and Israel but resumed in 2023 after the two countries signed an agreement in October 2022 to resolve their maritime boundary disagreements.

Documents available online show that nine of the 10 blocks in Lebanon’s EEZ are at stake, including Block 4, which was initially unsuccessfully explored by the TotalEnergies/Eni/Novatek consortium in 2020. However, the Russian company Novatek pulled out amid tensions over the war in Ukraine, and QatarEnergy subsequently joined the consortium.

In December 2023, Lebanon launched a third round of exploration and exploitation licensing. However, the consortium failed to sign the contracts for exploration for Blocks 8 and 10, missing the deadline without requesting an extension. Disagreements over changes in the terms and conditions imposed by Beirut likely contributed to this delay. Despite this setback, the consortium had submitted two bids following multiple tenders issued by Lebanon since 2018.

Since then, progress on this issue has been slow and discouraging. In July, Lebanon's Energy Authority (LPA), part of the Energy and Water Ministry, extended the deadline for companies to apply for exploration and exploitation licenses for nine out of 10 blocks until March 17, 2025 (with the exception of Block 9). In December, following the cease-fire in Lebanon caretaker Energy and Water Minister Walid Fayad revived the three-dimensional seismic survey process for Block 8.

BEIRUT — Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday at Baabda Palace during Macron’s one-day visit to Lebanon, where they discussed offshore hydrocarbons. Aoun urged Macron to encourage French energy firm TotalEnergies to resume its exploration operations in Lebanon’s offshore oil blocks, local channel LBC reportedThe long-delayed exploration efforts...