Lebanon launches 2nd offshore licensing round for all remaining blocks

BEIRUT — Lebanon launched on Friday its second offshore oil and gas licensing round for all eight remaining blocks, the Lebanese Petroleum Administration said on its website.

The deadline for the submission of bids is June 15, 2022.

Lebanon initially approved its second round in April 2019 that only covered two blocs but later postponed the bidding after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek completed exploratory drilling in Lebanon’s offshore Bloc 4 but did not find a commercially viable amount of hydrocarbons. Meanwhile, drilling in Bloc 9 was postponed.

Block 4 and Block 9 are what the first licensing round tried to explore.

Lebanon is in dire need of proceeds from the oil and gas sector as the country has been suffering from an unprecedented financial crisis.