Oil and gas should fuel negotiations

In recent years there have been significant strides made in Lebanon’s incipient oil and gas sector. This has in no small part been down Gebran Bassil, the caretaker minister of energy and water. His interpretation of the rules and regulations may have at times been somewhat flexible and his rhetoric hyperbolical, but there is no denying that he has gotten the show on the road.  The passage of the offshore petroleum resources law and the Petroleum Administration regulations, the creation of the Petroleum Administration, the launch of the first licensing round and the pre-qualification of 46 international oil companies (IOCs) all have been the major landmarks in this journey. This momentum all threatens to come to a shuddering halt, however, as the political apparatus of the country descends into a debilitating funk. A timetable was set at the beginning of the licensing round that would see the first contracts between