Unexplored potential

ENAR

A political decision is needed in 2015 for Lebanon to begin exploring for offshore oil and gas reserves. Until the government passes decrees delineating the offshore blocks and approving model exploration and production sharing agreements — which have been drafted and ready for debate and approval since early 2013 — we simply will not know what lies beneath Lebanon’s share of the eastern Mediterranean. Despite suggestions to the contrary — most notably Bank Audi’s prediction in early 2014 that Lebanon has $600 billion worth of gas — it is impossible to know what, if any, hydrocarbon resources the country has. Knowledge comes from drilling, and drilling only happens once contracts with international oil and gas companies are signed. If Lebanon does indeed have oil or natural gas reserves large enough to be commercially viable, there is still much work that needs to be done on the policy level. For example,