Anti-corruption law needed for oil and gas

Almost a year has passed since Executive first reported on a new draft law aiming to stamp out corruption at various points along the life cycle of an oil and gas project. It is an understandable delay given that parliament has only ratified emergency laws and, after an over three year wait, cabinet has yet to pass two decrees needed to move Lebanon’s first offshore licensing round forward. An early July meeting between the country’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and leader of the Free Patriotic Movement Gebran Bassil, whose party has dominated the early stages of developing the oil and gas file, raised concerns over a possible ‘back-room deal’ [see cover story] over the sector’s future and, possibly, the fate of potential contracts and hoped-for revenues. If the need for strong anti-corruption rules for this sector was not apparent before, it is now. That there is suspicion over the