BEIRUT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th October, 2022) French oil and gas company TotalEnergies will start exploration drilling off Lebanese shore in March 2023, a Lebanese source told Sputnik on Tuesday.
The source said that Lebanon and a delegation from the French company TotalEnergies have reached agreements in principle to begin exploratory drilling in Block 9 in March 2023.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Lebanese Council of Ministers said that the country's prime minister, Najib Mikati, asked TotalEnergies to immediately start exploration drilling on Lebanon's shelf.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced same day that Israel has reached a historic agreement on maritime border demarcation with Lebanon. Lapid's office said the draft agreement meets all the security and economic principles laid out by Israel and would be submitted for approval to the Security Cabinet and the government on Wednesday.
The deal was reached after intensive negotiations assisted by US mediator Amos Hochstein over the weekend and the Sukkot holiday.
Lebanon is also content with the agreement given that all of its demands have been taken into account, according to the office of Lebanese President Michel Aoun.
The negotiations on the demarcation of land and maritime borders have been going on since 1996 on the basis of a memorandum of understanding under United Nations and US mediation. In June 2022, Israel urged the Lebanese authorities to speed up the talks. Israel called the Karish gas field its strategic asset and assured Lebanon of the absence of plans to produce gas in the disputed territory.
