Lebanon's energy minister Thursday said his country plans to outline its maritime sea borders and auction off rights to explore potential offshore natural gas and petroleum reserves by 2012.
Lebanon
's
energy minister Thursday said his country plans to outline its maritime sea
borders and auction off rights to explore potential offshore natural gas and
petroleum reserves by 2012.
"Now that the law on the exploration of offshore oil and gas reserves has
been passed by parliament, we expect to begin the licensing process for the
exploration of the reserve in 2012, barring political hurdles," Gibran
Bassil said at a news conference.
Lebanese lawmakers on Tuesday passed the law, which calls for the establishment
of a treasury and a committee to oversee exploration and drilling off
Lebanon
, a
Mediterranean country without known oil reserves.
Bassil said
Lebanon
was
close to an agreement on maritime borders with
Cyprus
and
was unilaterally working on outlining its sea borders with
Israel
before submitting them to the United Nations Security Council.
Lebanon
and
Israel
remain technically in a state of war and have no diplomatic ties.
Ali Hamdan, an advisor to Lebanese speaker Nabih Berri, on Tuesday told AFP he
expected rights to be up for auction by the end of 2011.
"This is definitely a major cornerstone in
Lebanon
's oil
policy ... and will help
Lebanon
divide its reserves into blocks and eventually bring in tenders and start
looking into power-sharing agreements," he said.
Norway-based Petroleum Geo-Services ASA (PGS.OS) this year announced it had
explored Lebanese waters which contained "valuable information" on
potential offshore gas reserves in coordination with
Lebanon
's
energy and water ministry.
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