With maritime border issues resolved with Israel, a Lebanese minister said Wednesday that a consortium including TotalEnergies started exploring for oil and gas in the Mediterranean Sea.
"For your information, today, Wednesday 8/16/2023, the oil and gas exploration vessel in Block No. 9 has now reached its drilling point," Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamie said on social media.
Lebanon has long aspired to tap the resource potential in its territorial waters of the Mediterranean Sea, but was stymied by rival claims from Israel, its southern neighbor.
Israel had claimed that portions of its largest natural gas field, Leviathan, sat on the same geographical area as Block 9, raising the potential not only for newfound resources for Lebanon in the event of a border settlement, but conflict between the two states.
Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organization by many Western powers, but also a political force in Lebanon, fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006. The group in the past said it would use force to oppose any Israeli effort to intrude on waters that Beirut claims as its own."
The consortium behind exploration and production efforts in Block 9 is led by French major TotalEnergies and includes Italy's Eni and QatarEnergy as partners. TotalEnergies in January said it expected operations offshore to begin this year after rivals Israel and Lebanon settled their maritime disputes.
"The recent delineation of Lebanon's maritime border with Israel has created a new momentum for the exploration of its hydrocarbon potential. Along with our partners, we are committed to drilling as soon as possible in 2023 an exploration well in Block 9, and our teams are mobilized to conduct these operations," Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, said at the time.
