Bassil Says Lebanon to Adopt Israel's “Tactics” over Oil Drilling
Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil lashed out on Wednesday at Israel, considering that it can't prevent Lebanon from protecting its oil reserves as he accused it of digging a well 5 kilometers from Lebanese offshore reserves.
“We will treat Israel as it is treating us. The Jewish state can't oblige us to commit to stances that it fails to keep,” Bassil said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.
He stressed the Lebanon “isn't looking for any trouble as it's discussing with the Americans the possibility of resolving the dispute with Israel.”
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.
Bassil had previously warned in July that Israel’s discovery of a new offshore gas field near Lebanese territorial waters means the Jewish state could siphon some of Lebanon’s crude oil.
“We are working within the international laws and norms and we will not breach (Israel's) maritime border,” Bassil said, adding that Lebanon “will hold onto its rights.”
He noted that the “Lebanese state is trying to guarantee its right to exploit its oil wealth.”
Bassil also lashed out at Lebanese officials who “paralyzed” the petroleum file.
Lebanon has been slow to exploit its maritime resources compared with other eastern Mediterranean countries. Israel, Cyprus and Turkey are all much more advanced in drilling for oil and gas.
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.
The formation of the Petroleum Authority in November was the first major step in future oil exploration since parliament passed a law in 2011 setting the country's maritime boundary and Exclusive Economic Zone.
The country will witness the first oil exploration process in 2015 and it will take a year to enter the production stage.
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