Bassil: New Channel for Oil, Gas and Water with Cyprus

Caretaker Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil announced on Saturday that a channel for oil, gas and water has been opened with Cyprus after what he described as a “successful” visit that ended Friday.

“A channel for oil, gas and water has been opened between Lebanon and Cyprus, especially in terms of sharing oil and gas in common waters between the two states, so that Lebanon can achieve strong financial returns,” Bassil told As Safir daily in an interview.

He explained that an agreement will be made to share oil and gas according to the norms and standards with the participation of the oil sector authority, assuring that “such an agreement falls in Lebanon's interest and solves the disputed problem of maritime border.”

During his visit to Cyprus on Friday, Bassil held a press conference with the Cypriot Minister of Energy Giorgos Lakkotrypis and pointed out that “the Ministry has a vision regarding the future relations with Cyprus and those are related to water, oil, gas, transportation and wine.”

Bassil added that his visit to Cyprus aimed to rectify the mistake made regarding the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel, voicing hopes that that can be achieved.

“Lebanon is ready to provide the means available to export gas from Cyprus and we look forward to the possibility of diversification in means of exporting gas,” said Bassil.

In July, Lebanon was able to restore 530 square kilometers of a maritime zone that it considers it to be within its Exclusive Economic Zone.

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.

The United States and the United Nations acknowledged Lebanon’s rights to control the 530 square kilometer disputed area after prolonged diplomatic and political efforts.

In March 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 34.5 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas in the Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean, which includes the territorial waters of Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Cyprus.

Earlier in October, Bassil urged Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati to hold a cabinet session to approve two decrees he said were essential to award two oil blocks, close to Israel, in order to protect the country’s gas and oil wealth. However Miqati refused to do so attributing the reasons to the fact that the cabinet is resigned.