The Ministry of Energy and Water issued Decision No. 2 dated March 17, 2025 that extended the deadline for the submission of applications for the third licensing round for offshore oil and gas exploration in Lebanon's territorial waters to November 28, 2025. It said that it postponed the deadline based on the approval of the Council of Ministers and on the recommendation of the Lebanese Petroleum Administration (LPA).  The ministry attributed its decision to the opinion of the LPA of the need for Lebanon to remain on the petroleum map in the East Mediterranean as an attractive destination for investments in the exploration of its offshore petroleum resources, to give the government the necessary time to take measures to stabilize the economy given the country's economic and financial conditions, as well as to the regional and international developments that may affect the investment environment in the oil and gas sector, as well as to provide companies with opportunities to invest in the petroleum sector by giving them an additional chance to submit applications to participate in the third licensing round.  The ministry had launched the process on December 26, 2023 for the third licensing round, following the Council of Ministers' approval on December 19, 2023, and indicated at the time that the deadline to submit the applications was July 2, 2024. It then announced on June 24, 2024 that it had extended the deadline to March 17, 2025. The LPA indicated that interested companies must submit Licensing Round Applications (LRA) to the ministry and to the LPA, as per the procedure defined in the tender protocol, and that the deadline to submit the applications is November 28, 2025. It added that interested companies must first inform the LPA in writing, and that individual firms must join together in consortiums of at least three companies and submit an LRA to seek pre-qualification as Right Holder - Operator or Right Holder - Non-Operator, and to obtain an Exploration and Production Agreement.  The LPA stated that nine blocks are open for bidding for the third licensing round that consist of Block 1 and Block 2, which are located in the north of Lebanon's offshore Exclusive Economic Zone; Block 3, Block 4, Block 5, Block 6 and Block 7 in the center of the zone;  as well as Block 8 and Block 10 that are in the south of Lebanon's territorial waters. It added that Block 9 is the only block with Exclusive Petroleum Rights. The Right Holders in Block 9 are the operator TotalEnergies EP Block 9 that holds a 35% stake, as well as the non-operators Eni Lebanon BV that has a 35% interest and QatarEnergy International Investments (2) LLC that holds a share of 30%. The LPA indicated that the authorities selected the blocks open for bidding based on the priorities and goals of the upstream oil and gas sector and the objectives of the third offshore licensing round.  TotalEnergies, which is the operator of the consortium that won bids for the exploration of oil and gas in Block 4 and Block 9 of Lebanon's territorial waters, started drilling in Block 9 in August 2023. But it informed the ministry and the LPA in September 2023 about the technical difficulties that it has faced during the drilling operations, and has asked the ministry to update the drilling license.  Further, the operator noted that it could not continue to drill in the original site due to the presence of rocks that prevent the insertion of the 36-inch wide iron device inside the seabed. It added that it faced the option of either changing the location of the well to a nearby area to avoid the rocks, or utilizing a 40-inch wide drilling head to insert the 36-inch iron shirt based on the geological report of August 31, 2023. As such, TotalEnergies indicated that, given the extended period of time that the second option will take, it chose the first option, which is to modify the well's location by 31.7 meters from the original site.  Also, TotalEnergies announced in April 2020 that the results of the drilling of Lebanon's first exploration well of oil and gas in Block 4 were "negative". It indicated that it found evidence of traces of gas in the well, which confirms the presence of a hydrocarbon system in Lebanon's territorial waters.  (ICE BEIRUT)

Fonte notizia: Byblos Bank, March 17-22, 2025