On 5 October 2013, the Minister of Energy and Water announced that the date to submit bids pertaining to Lebanon’s First Offshore Licensing Round has been further extended from 10 December 2013* to 10 January 2014 owing to delays in the official ratification of the Governmental Decrees related to the Delineation of the Offshore Blocks and the model Exploration and Production Agreement. The issuance and approval of these two decrees by the Lebanese Government is necessary for the initiation of the bidding process. The 6-month bidding round kicked off on 2 May 2013 and was meant to close on 4 November 2013.** During this period, the Government was to finalize the framework and conditions for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in Lebanon, however, the presence of a caretaker government with limited powers has slowed down this process. In May this year, a draft model EPA was made available for comment to the companies which had successfully made it through the April 2013 pre-qualification round with an updated draft model EPA subsequently being made available following the conclusion of a workshop held in Beirut in June 2013. As regards the delineation of the offshore blocks, five blocks (1, 4, 5, 6 and 9) were indicated as likely to be those opened for bidding in Lebanon’s First Offshore Licensing Round, with the possibility of further blocks being added if so decided by the Council of Ministers. This further extension of the bidding phase will undoubtedly have an impact on the projected timetable as outlined in April this year and the possibility of the signing off of the finalized EPA in February-March 2014 is becoming ever increasingly unlikely.
*We refer to our post of 4 September 2013 regarding the initial deadline postponement
**We refer to our post of 2 May 2013 for the complete original timeline.
