On Friday 22 March 2013, the Lebanese Prime Minister handed in his resignation, prompting the dissolution of the Lebanese government. As we approach the first milestone of the Lebanese Oil & Gas licensing round, this development presents a new challenge for Lebanon’s Oil & Gas sector.
In a press conference held yesterday, the Lebanese Minister of Energy & Water announced that the resignation of the government will not impact upon the deadline for pre-qualification (set for Thursday 28 March 2013) and that the present government acting as caretaker will continue to oversee the process until a new government is in place. The Lebanese Petroleum Board, which was elected for a six year term, remains unaffected by governmental changes and is also expected to ensure continuity over the coming months. The powers of the caretaker government however remain essentially limited to managing day-to-day affairs. With the pre-qualification deadline now upon us, supplementary decrees were to be issued ahead of the bidding phase which was set to begin on 2 May 2013. These decrees were expected to contain the approved Model Exploration and Production Agreement as well as the delineation of offshore blocks for bidding purposes. A draft decree on block delineation was submitted to the council of ministers for approval shortly before its resignation. While unofficial, an extract of this draft decree includes a map showing the proposed division of the Lebanese EEZ into ten (10) distinct blocks. This version of the map (unofficial at this point) was disclosed in an article published today by a Lebanese newspaper. The draft decree is also believed to provide mechanisms for the resolution of potential maritime boundary issues.
