Beirut — A coalition of Total Energies , Eni and Qatar Energy applied for the second licensing round to bid on oil and gas blocks 8 and 10 in Lebanese waters, an hour before the deadline on Monday, Lebanon’s energy ministry said.
The consortium last month began drilling an exploratory well in Lebanon’s Block 9, one of the blocks falling alongside the newly delineated maritime border between Lebanon and Israel.
The boundary was drawn last year following U.S.-mediated talks.
The deadline to bid on Blocks 8 and 10 had already been extended several times in recent years.
“Yes, these were the bids we received as part of second licensing rounds. This is positive news as it increases the number of blocks where we have engagement, even before the results of 9 are obtained,” Lebanon’s Energy Minister Walid Fayad said in an interview.
The government will review the bids in the next few months and negotiate with the companies, he said.
Fayad said the consortium was also considering drilling an additional well in Block 4.
The consortium – which previously included Russia’s Novatek before QatarEnergy took over and expanded its share – completed exploratory drilling in Lebanon’s offshore Bloc 4 in 2020 but did not find a commercially viable amount of hydrocarbons at the time.
Fayad said the consortium would decide whether it would drill again in Block 4 by Oct. 22.
He said the consortium would have results for Block 9 – where it is drilling an exploratory well – by the end of this month or in November.
“Based on this, we will evaluate scope and timing of launch of the third licensing round,” he added.
(Reporting by Maya Gbeily; Writing by Tala Ramadan and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Susan Fenton and Richard Chang) – Reuters
