“Israel” demands the exertion of pressure on Lebanon for the adjustment of the drilling bids.
The Minister of Oil and Water Cesar Abi Khalil assured that “Lebanon is going through a series of permits for drilling for oil and gas at the preset scheduled times that were announced and that coincides with the middle of September 2017.”
Abi Khalil pointed out, in a conversation with ‘Al-Mayadin net’ to the fact that “Lebanon will not relinquish its oil rights in its waters”, assuring that “what Israel is doing is nothing but an attempt at disruption of the demands that Lebanon has expressed concerning its benefiting from its rights after Israel has failed in their prior attempts at obtaining the drilling rights for themselves.”
Abi Khalil continued on by saying “we have drawn our borders and informed the United Nations according to international treaties and so we retain the right to benefit from our treasure and will not back down no matter the threats.”
Abi Khalil’s statements come after Israel requested from the United States (U.S.) and the United Nations (U.N.) to put pressure on Lebanon to change the bids for the drilling rights for oil and gas, due to the presence of three blocks in the maritime borders with Israel that are adjacent to the contested area.
The Israeli website Globes, which specializes in economic affairs mentioned that Israel asked the U.S. and the U.N. “ to exert pressure on Lebanon so as to amend the bidding for contracts that they claim was initiated concerning the drilling for oil and gas in five (5) maritime blocks that fall into the Lebanese commercial area”, elaborating that “Israel is basing its request on the fact that 3 of those blocks are adjacent to the maritime borders of Occupied Palestine and also encroaching on a disputed maritime area that is being contested with Lebanon estimated to be around 800 square kilometers.”
The site also mentioned that “the Lebanese government and after years of preparations and delays has issued, three and half months ago, an invitation to international companies involved in drilling for oil and gas to present their preliminary bids,” pointing out that “it is agreed that the end of the month is the deadline for entering their request for consideration in the upcoming bidding process in order to obtain rights for the drilling.”
The site also revealed that “Lebanon has gone through preliminary procedures in 2013 to classify the companies in which 46 out 52 companies were approved to go further in the process, but the proceedings are no longer valid today, knowing that the companies that have gone through the preliminary process will have to compete once more for the rights in a new round of bids.” It pointed out that “the Lebanese government believes that its economic involved contain 850 million barrels of oil and no less than 2,700 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas, similar to Israel’s potential, including the fields that have already been discovered.”
Globes added that “the director of oil revenues in the Lebanese ministry of Energy, Wissam Edmond Chbat, had broached the subject, during the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Conference (EMGC) held last week in Nicosia Cyprus, about the possibility of finding gas and oil in the blocks designated for the bidding, ” considering that “the Lebanese government hopes to receive final offers from the companies competing for the drilling permits by next September, and to announce the winners in November,” stating that “the Lebanese representatives attending the conference were asked whether the blocks overlapped the disputed territory on Israeli commercial waters to which they answered in the negative.”
The website quoted “Israel” Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz as saying, during his attendance of Ceraweek conference last week in the United States, that “Israel had sent in early February an official letter to the United Nations expressing its protest about the actions of the Lebanese government concerning the publishing of a bidding over its marine economic waters that border the Occupied Palestine waters.” Steinitz added that “Israel will reserve its rights and is open to dialogue on this issue.”
Translated by Hala Hayek
