Lebanon aims to complete drilling the first exploratory well in its offshore block 9 before or by the end of this year, the country's energy minister Walid Fayad told the Egyps conference in Cairo today.
Drilling of the first exploratory well is expected to begin "at the end of the summer", Fayad said, in line with recent comments from TotalEnergies' chief executive Patrick Pouyanne on its aim to start drilling in the third quarter.
The plans to drill in the block were formalised after a much-anticipated deal between Lebanon and Israel was struck in the third quarter of last year to delineate the maritime border between the countries. The southern part of block 9 covered an area that had been contested by both sides for many years.
The agreement was "a historic stabilising factor that will first, provide the needed security for Lebanon to exploit all of its resources with partners that would otherwise not be encouraged to participate…[while also] not giving up any of our resources," Fayad said.
With this deal, Lebanon managed to "seize a very fortunate moment in history, when we had the global demand, soaring gas prices, and everybody wanting gas from the Mediterranean", he said.
This new stability encouraged state-owned QatarEnergy (QE) to join TotalEnergies and Italy's Eni in both block 9 and the nearby block 4, effectively replacing Russia's Novatek which pulled out of the joint venture late last year for what it described as "economic and financial" reasons and "political risk".
QE now holds a 30pc stake in the two licences, with TotalEnergies and Eni each holding 35pc stakes.
Lebanon has now "achieved the maximum that could be achieved at this stage", Fayad said. "We can always dream of more, but you have to think of what's achievable."
