MP Criticizes Beirut for Lacking Oil Development Program, Asks for Iran’s Help

A senior Lebanese lawmaker strongly criticized the Arab country’s government for neglecting oil drilling and exploiting operations, and called for Iran’s help.
The remarks by Lebanese MP Assem Qanso came after the Deputy Leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah Movement, Sheikh Naim Qassem, called for exploiting Lebanon’s oil and gas resources in the Southern parts of the country in a bid to prevent Israel from stealing them.

“The Lebanese government has no program for exploiting oil (whether onshore or offshore) in this country,” Qanso told FNA on Monday.

“We hope that Iran would help Lebanon in drilling and exploiting oil resources, specially in onshore areas,” he added.

He reiterated that although major gas and oil resources were discovered two years ago, the Arab country has taken no serious measure to start drilling and exploiting its huge resources.

A 2010 US Geological Survey study estimated that the Levantine Basin, an area of 83,000 square km which includes waters outside Lebanon’s jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean, held 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas and 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

An analyst at survey firm Spectrum estimated in May that the country’s total deep-water gas reserves could be up to 80 trillion cubic feet.

In October 2013, Lebanese Energy Minister Gebran Bassil said new estimates for nearly half of Lebanese waters suggested the country’s reserves of natural gas and oil might be larger than previously thought.

“The current estimate, under a probability of 50 percent, for almost 45 percent of our waters has reached 95.9 trillion cubic feet of gas and 865 million barrels of oil,” he said.

The estimates were based on seismic surveys conducted ahead of an auction for exploration rights which had already been delayed by several months by a political stalemate in Lebanon.