Acute Discord over Petroleum File Delays Bidding on Oil Blocks

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat denied on Saturday reports saying that he is preventing the cabinet from holding an extraordinary session to discuss two decrees essential to award the oil blocks for the oil companies.

“If the issue requires an extraordinary session to resolve it then I don't mind but the recommendations of the petroleum authority should be taken into consideration,” Jumblat said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

The Druze leader pointed out that he had previously warned of “the delay in cabinet formation... will deprive Lebanon from basic issues including the exploitation of its gas and oil reserves.”

Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil postponed again on Friday the oil and gas tenders from December 10, 2013 to January 10, 2014 after the cabinet failed once again to convene to approve the two decrees.

The country's oil and gas wealth attracted around 46 Arab and international companies in the second pre-qualification round of the tenders process.

Bassil said in a statement that he had urged President Michel Suleiman and Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati to hold an extraordinary session to approve the two decrees, which are essential to award the oil blocks in order to protect the country’s gas and oil wealth.

The decrees call for demarcating 10 maritime oil exploration blocks and setting up a revenue-sharing model.

Sources close to Miqati told As Safir that he “expressed his readiness to call for a government session to discuss the two decrees.”

“If there was a unanimous political agreement and there were no constitutional violations then Miqati will call for the extraordinary session after he return to Lebanon,” the sources added.

Miqati is currently in New York.

The sources called on the political foes to swiftly form a new cabinet to demolish any “fears that the extraordinary session is to reactivate the resigned cabinet.”

Speaker Nabih Berri urged on Friday Suleiman and Miqati to hold an extraordinary government session meeting to assign 10 of the blocks.

However, Bassil calls for assigning only two for the meantime, warning that Israel would exploit the Lebanese discord over the matter.

Lebanon has been slow to exploit its maritime resources compared with other eastern Mediterranean countries. Israel, Cyprus and Turkey are all much more advanced in drilling for oil and gas.

Lebanon and Israel are bickering over a zone that consists of about 854 square kilometers and suspected energy reserves there could generate billions of dollars.