Deficiency reigns

Lebanon suffers from “high” deficiencies of social and environmental baseline data as well as a “capacity deficiency within authorities,” according to the long-awaited strategic environmental assessment (SEA) related to potential oil and gas activities, recently published by the Lebanese Petroleum Administration. More than two years after it was completed — and despite promises that it would be published in May 2013 — the LPA recently made the SEA available on its website. An SEA is a first step for evaluating and monitoring the environmental and social impact of oil and gas exploration and production — should commercially viable quantities of oil or gas be found. RPS Energy, part of UK consultancy RPS Group and author of the eight volume document, notes that more in depth environmental and social impact assessments should be completed by international oil and gas companies after exploration and production sharing contracts are signed but before any work begins.