Lebanon\u2019s energy minister vowed Thursday that Beirut will go ahead with oil and gas exploration near its maritime border with Israel, despite Israeli claims to the field that provoked wide condemnation in the tiny Arab country. Cesar Abi Khalil\u2019s comments to The Associated Press came a day after Israel\u2019s defense minister described as \u201cvery provocative\u201d Lebanon\u2019s offshore oil and gas exploration on the countries\u2019 maritime border and suggested that Lebanon had sought bids from international companies for a gas field \u201cwhich is by all accounts ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli official\u2019s comments drew sharp condemnation from the militant Hezbollah group and Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a Western ally, who described Lieberman\u2019s comments as a \u201cblatant provocation that Lebanon rejects.\u201d<\/p>\n
In December, the Lebanese Cabinet approved licenses for three international companies to carry out exploratory drilling off the Lebanese coast. The licenses will allow Italy\u2019s Eni, France\u2019s Total and Russia\u2019s Novatek, who bid for two of Lebanon\u2019s 10 offshore blocks, to determine whether oil and gas exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe consider this statement as an aggression on Lebanon\u2019s sovereignty to practice its natural right to explore our oil resources,\u201d Abi Khalil said in his office. He added that the block that is on the border with Israel is \u201cinside Lebanese territorial waters and Lebanon demarcated maritime borders in accordance with international laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abi Khalil said Beirut had informed the United Nations by giving locations of its border after it was demarcated. Abi Khalil said the three companies will begin drilling in 2019 and depending on what they find, the country will put forward more blocks for oil companies to bid for.<\/p>\n
A major find in Lebanon\u2019s southernmost waters could raise the possibility of a dispute with Israel, which is developing a number of offshore gas deposits, with one large field, Tamar, already producing gas, and the larger Leviathan field set to go online next year. There are over 800 square kilometers (300 square miles) of waters claimed by the two countries, which are technically in a state of conflict. Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will use all available means to protect our rights in our Lebanese waters,\u201d Abi Khalil said. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: \u201cWe\u2019re encouraging everybody to use diplomatic means to address these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe support the right of both Lebanon and Israel to exploit their maritime resources in accordance with the international Law of the Sea,\u201d he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lebanon\u2019s energy minister vowed Thursday that Beirut will go ahead with oil and gas exploration near its maritime border with Israel, despite Israeli claims to the field that provoked wide condemnation in the tiny Arab country. Cesar Abi Khalil\u2019s comments to The Associated Press came a day after Israel\u2019s defense minister described as \u201cvery provocative\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20647,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20645\/revisions\/20647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}