Lebanon opens more offshore blocks

May 3, 2019
The Lebanese Council of Ministers has offered five offshore blocks for tender under Lebanon’s second offshore licensing round.

Offshore staff

BEIRUT, Lebanon – The Lebanese Council of Ministers has offered five offshore blocks for tender under Lebanon’s second offshore licensing round.

The country’s petroleum administration has invited interested bidders to form consortia comprising at least three individual companies, including one that satisfies pre-qualification criteria applicable to a right holder-operator.

Bids for blocks 1, 2, 5, 8, and 10 must be submitted before Jan. 31, 2020.

Main objectives for the Second Offshore Licensing Round are to:

1.) Intensify exploration activities in the Lebanese offshore: The administration wants the consortia to target several prospects and to undertake exploration activities in various geological zones and on different targets.

2.) Increase the attractiveness of the Lebanese offshore and promoting competition: The administration highlighted data accessibility via both a Data Room and a Virtual Data Room, the clarity and transparency of the country’s legal and regulatory framework, its fiscal model, and its proximity to regional markets as factors that should attract international investment to the sector.

According to Spectrum, provisional block winners should be announced next April.

The company has acquired and interpreted more than 5,000 sq km (1,930 sq mi) of modern multi-client 3D data offshore Lebanon.

Second round blocks on offer in the western offshore display large, simple three-way dip and one-way fault closed structures on modern 3D seismic, the company said, where blind planar east-west faults cut long north-south folds.

These features, with 400-500 m (1,312-1,640 ft) of closure, enclose 1,000 m (3,281 ft) of Nile-derived deepwater fan, sandstone in very large traps.

Although they may be filled by dry biogenic gas such as the nearby deepwater Leviathan and Zohr discoveries, Spectrum also sees potential for an oil play from an oil-prone source rock directly underneath the reservoir.

05/03/2019