BEIRUT (Reuters/AP) – TransOcean Barents drilling rig arrived in Lebanon’s Block 9 on Wednesday to begin exploration activities, Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamie, posted on Twitter, following a landmark agreement last year that delineated the contentious maritime border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied territories to the south.
Hamie made the announcement on Wednesday on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“For your information, today, Wednesday 8/16/2023, the oil and gas exploration vessel in Block No. 9 has now reached its drilling point,” he wrote.
Lebanon’s energy minister Walid Fayad said in May that he expected to know whether there would be a discovery there by the end of the year. ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi said in January that he was “positive” about a discovery there.
Lebanon is hoping the exploration and discovery of commercial quantities of oil and gas will help it overcome its current economic crisis.
Lebanon’s share would range from 54 to 63 percent after the deduction of operational and capital costs, in any instance of oil and gas discovery.
In February the outlook for Lebanon’s Qana gas field project appeared promising when Janus 2 completed an eight-day mission during which it collected images of the seabed, and took samples of water and sediment.
While the delimitation of the maritime dispute removed a significant point of friction that could have led to a new conflict, Lebanon and the Zionist regime do not have direct diplomatic contact.
The occupying regime invaded Lebanon in 1982 and the two sides fought again in 2006.