It’s a crucial deal for Lebanon, facing its worst economic downturn in decades, as well as for settling disputes over its maritime borders with Israel. A step that allows Beirut to begin exploration in the potential Cana gas field, part of which is located in the territorial waters of the Jewish state, despite the war between the two countries.
Indeed, Qatar announced on Sunday its entry as a partner of the French TotalEnergies and the Italian Eni in the consortium which must initiate the exploration of hydrocarbons in a maritime block off southern Lebanon, on the border with Israel. Via its national oil company QatarEnergy, the Arabian Peninsula thus replaces the Russian Novatek, which withdrew in 2022, and will hold 30% of the shares (compared to 35% for TotalEnergies and 35% for Eni), indicated the Lebanese Prime Minister , Najib Mikati, before the signing ceremony this Sunday.
Agreement on maritime borders between Lebanon and Israel
The announcement comes after a major breakthrough in the maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Israel, following US mediation. Indeed, on October 27, the two neighbors still in a state of war since the creation of Israel in 1948, signed a historic agreement fixing their borders in the Mediterranean. Prior to this, neither country was able to exploit the region’s natural resources due to disagreement over the location of the border. Hezbollah, the powerful militant and political group in Lebanon, even threatened to attack Israel if it extracted gas before a deal.
The situation has therefore evolved: within the framework of the agreement negotiated by the United States, Israel thus obtained all the rights to the off-shore gas field of Karish, while the rights of Lebanon to another gas field, called Cana, were recognized. And that’s not all: Beirut has accepted that some potential income from Qana, part of which is in Israeli waters, goes to Israel. Ultimately, Israel will be remunerated by the firm operating Cana “ for its rights to any deposits according to the text of the agreement, the Israeli government estimating its share at around 17%.
exploration campaign
About what ” give new impetus to the exploration of the country’s hydrocarbon potential “, welcomed the CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné. With this new consortium, the objective would be to achieve, ” as soon as possible in 2023 », the drilling of the Cana well. Concretely, Lebanon has divided the exclusive economic zone at sea into ten blocks and Block 9, where Cana is located, was part of the disputed zone with Israel before the October agreement. The consortium is also in charge of exploiting block 4, facing the coast of central Lebanon, where exploration has not led to the discovery of commercial quantities.
With this in mind, TotalEnergies and Eni had already signed a framework agreement with Israel last November to launch prospecting. With this new step, the consortium will now be able to explore a ” already identified prospect which could extend both in Block 9 and in Israeli waters south of the recently established maritime border “, according to the French group. In detail, prospecting should end “ in the next 12 months “Said Patrick Pouyanné on Sunday. The discovery of gas could thus be announced at this time. The potential deposit of Cana has already been highlighted by seismic analyzes of the rock and will have to be confirmed by this exploration campaign.
Non-existent infrastructure
However, analysts agree that it will take several years for Beirut to enter the exploitation phase in the event of a commercial discovery.
“The problem is that you need an infrastructure to export the gas, which currently does not exist. And if the gas is used for local consumption in Lebanon”, where the power stations are almost at a standstill due to the economic crisis, “it will be necessary to build a coastal pipeline to supply these power stations”, AFP told AFP. energy expert Naji Abi Aad.
For its part, Israel has already begun extracting gas, and delivers it to its Jordanian and Egyptian neighbors. Last June, it signed an agreement for the liquefaction of its gas in Egypt with a view to shipping it to Europe by ship.
Qatar’s growing influence
This new partnership expands the collaboration between TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy in the field of exploration and brings to nine the number of countries in which the two companies are partners. During a press conference, the Qatari minister considered that his country’s entry into the consortium constituted ” an opportunity to support development in Lebanon in these difficult circumstances “. But the peninsula obviously finds its interest there:
« This participation is a new step in Qatar’s expansion of its international dominance in natural gas, with the Russian-Ukrainian war, but also in the growing international interest in carrying out more exploration in the Mediterranean region to compensate for the gas disruptions, especially in Europe,” according to Laura Sayah, assistant professor at the Lebanese University, quoted by Doha News.
Indeed, with Vladimir Putin cutting gas deliveries, Qatar, pioneering the high-volume, low-cost, long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) delivery model for many Asian customers, has been coming for several months. to the aid of Europe, hitherto trapped by its extreme dependence on Russia. To the point that the country regained its place as the world’s leading exporter of LNG last April, ahead of the United States and its abundant shale gas, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights. In a world with contradictory injunctions, the call in 2021 by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to immediately abandon any new oil or gas extraction project to limit global warming to +1.5° In any case, it does not seem to resist economic and political interests.
(with agencies)