Lebanon 2nd Offshore Licensing Announced

Laxman Pai
Sunday, December 23, 2018

The Ministry of Energy & Water in Lebanon together with the Lebanese Petroleum Administration announced via their website the recommended blocks for bidding during the Lebanese 2nd licensing round for hydrocarbon exploration offshore Lebanon.

LPA has recommended 4 blocks for the upcoming 2nd licensing round, which is expected to start in early 2019. The recommended blocks are 1, 5, 8 & 10. This recommendation was also announced during a presentation given at PETEX 2018 in London on November 26, during which Mr Wissam Chbat, head of the geology and geophysics unit, has publicly announced that.

Block 1 lies in the Lattakia Ridge zone, which according to Agenor Energy’s analysis and to a recent publication by Ghalayini et al. (2018),  consists of Late Cretaceous 4-way closed traps and a mixed thermogenic/biogenic system.

In this domain, reservoirs are in the Upper Miocene and Lower Oligocene and have not been drilled yet in the basin. They are believed to be different than the base Miocene Tamar sand. Block 5 and 8 are in the deep basin domain, which according to the same studies, are characterised by 3-way traps closed against normal faults.

It is expected that these traps are charged by Oligo-Miocene biogenic gas and the reservoirs are analogous to the base Miocene Tamar sand. Block 10 lies along the margin domain and stratigraphic traps, such as Oligo-Miocene clastic pinchouts and Cretaceous carbonate reefs, are expected.

Although this is still a recommendation, the open blocks will not be officially announced until the Lebanese council of ministers approves this recommendation via a decree. It is very possible that the official blocks might be different. When the first bid round was launched in 2013, Block 1, 4, 5, 6, and 9 were open for bidding. However, when the tender was resumed in 2017, Block 1, 4, 8, 9, and 10 were put on offer.

Lebanon currently has a caretaker government since April 2018 due to a stall in cabinet formation as political parties are unable to agree and nominate ministers. The caretaker government is not allowed by the constitution to issue decrees, making it uncertain on when exactly the second licensing round will start.

Categories: Government Update Exploration Regulation Geophysics Geology

Related Stories

CNOOC Puts Into Production New Oil Field in South China Sea

Sunda Energy Starts Environmental Consultation for Chuditch-2 Well Drilling Plans

CNOOC Makes Major Oil and Gas Discovery in South China Sea

CNOOC Starts Production at Two New Oil and Gas Projects

All Gas from Conrad’s Mako Field to be Sold to Indonesia’s PLN

Valeura Wraps Up Infill Drilling Campaign in Gulf of Thailand

CNOOC Brings Online Second Phase of Luda Oil Field Project in Bohai Sea

SLB Names Raman CSO, CMO

CNOOC Starts Production at Offshore Oil Filed Equipped with CCUS Tech

Flare Gas Recovery Meets the Future

Current News

Shell-Reliance-ONGC JV Complete India’s First Offshore Decom Project

The Future of Long-Idle Drillships: Cold-Stacked or Dead-Stacked?

TMC Books Compressors Orders for FPSO and LNG Vessels

MODEC, Sumitomo Partner Up for Delivery of Gato do Mato FPSO

Chuditch Gas Field Up for Summer Drilling Ops as Sunda Reshapes Ownership Structure

EnQuest Bags Two Production Sharing Contracts off Indonesia

Hanwha Drilling’s Tidal Action Drillship En Route to Petrobras’ Roncador Field

China's ENN, Zhenhua Oil Ink LNG Supply Deals with ADNOC

MODEC Wins ExxonMobil Guyana’s Hammerhead FPSO Contract

India Stretches Bids Deadline for 13 Offshore Deep-Sea Mineral Blocks

Subscribe for AOG Digital E‑News

AOG Digital E-News is the subsea industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email three times per week

https://accounts.newwavemedia.com