Lebanon has postponed holding the second round of the tender for foreign companies on the development of offshore oil and gas deposits in the country to early 2019, Lebanese Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil told Sputnik on Monday.
BARCELONA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2018) Lebanon has postponed holding the second round of the tender for foreign companies on the development of offshore oil and gas deposits in the country to early 2019, Lebanese Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil told Sputnik on Monday.
"We are starting preparing for the second round and this will be at the beginning of 2019. This is what we are doing, we are revisiting our past in the light of our experience we have gathered in the first round. Hopefully, we will submit by the end of the year to the council of ministers all the criteria and then they will approve," Khalil said on the sidelines of the Gastech conference, adding that the auction would be for offshore fields.
In August, Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to encourage Russian energy companies to take part in the upcoming tender, given the successful participation of Russian companies in the first one.
In 2017, Russia's natural gas producer Novatek obtained the right to explore two energy blocks in Lebanon in a consortium with France's Total and Italy's Eni.
