Total, Eni and QatarEnergy to explore oil, gas in Lebanon

Country hopes discoveries will help it reverse a crippling economic crisis

TotalEnergies is keen to start work on Lebanon’s offshore Block 9 soon, with assessments to begin early next month and welldrilling to launch in the third quarter of 2023, its CEO Patrick Pouyanne said yesterday.

Pouyanne was speaking in a joint news conference in Beirut after signing a three-way consortium deal with QatarEnergy and Eni to explore oil and gas in two maritime blocks off the coast of Lebanon known as Blocks 4 and 9. Following months of talks, QatarEnergy has taken a 30 per cent stake in the consortium, leaving TotalEnergies and Eni with 35 per cent each.

Lebanon hopes discoveries will help it reverse a crippling economic crisis that has cost the local currency more than 97 per cent of its value, eroded the country’s foreign reserves and caused rolling blackouts across towns and cities.

‘Big opportunity’

Pouyanne said a vessel would arrive in Lebanese waters on February 6 to carry out an environmental survey in Block 9, “and we plan to drill during the third quarter of the year”.

The CEO of Eni, Claudio Descalzi, said the exploration could offer a “big opportunity” for Lebanon as the world was facing a major lack of gas.

“From a geological point of view, I am positive” about a discovery in Lebanon’s Block 9, Descalzi told reporters. “We have to hope and pray that it is a real and material one,” he said. Pouyanne and Qatar’s energy minister Saad Al Kaabi, also the CEO of QatarEnergy, said they were discussing possible coordination on renewable energy in Lebanon.

Lebanon’s first licensing round in 2017 saw a consortium of TotalEnergies, Eni and Russia’s Novatek win bids to explore.