Filling the gap

When international oil companies refused to fund a new survey of Lebanon’s onshore, private investors stepped in, to the tune of $7.8 million. The survey, being conducted from the air with two specially tweaked planes, will cover 6,000 square kilometers and will offer insights into Lebanon’s onshore oil and gas potential. Data acquisition is currently underway, with fully analyzed and interpreted results expected in the third quarter of 2015. The point of the aerial survey is to collect data on Lebanon’s as yet understudied subsurface. While a 2-dimensional seismic survey was supposed to be completed in 2014, the work that began in late 2013 is currently on hold. Instability on the Lebanese–Syrian border and the country’s mountainous terrain both played roles in temporarily derailing the seismic survey, the Lebanese Petroleum Administration (LPA) told Executive in October. Border instability also influenced the area the aerial survey will cover, explains Ziad Abs,