TotalEnergies begins preparation to drill offshore Lebanon after Israel deal

TotalEnergies said Nov. 15 it was starting preparations to drill offshore Lebanon following the country's maritime boundary agreement reached with Israel in late October.

Lebanon and Israel finalized their US-brokered landmark border agreement on Oct. 27, allowing delayed exploration work in the area to resume.

"TotalEnergies and its partner Eni have signed, with the State of Israel, a framework agreement to implement the agreement on maritime boundary which has been reached between Israel and Lebanon," the French company said.

It said it planned to drill an exploration well at an already identified prospect in Lebanon's Block 9 that could also extend into Israeli waters south of the recently established boundary line.

"Preparation of exploration activities starts now with the mobilization of the teams, the purchase of required equipment and the procurement of a drilling rig," the company said.

CEO Patrick Pouyanne said TotalEnergies was "proud" to be associated with the peaceful definition of a maritime border between Israel and Lebanon.

"We will respond to the request of both countries to assess the materiality of hydrocarbon resources and production potential in this area," Pouyanne said.

Lebanon has to date made no commercial gas finds in its offshore in stark contrast to Israel, which has become a major gas producing country in recent years thanks to the start-up of the Tamar, Leviathan and Karish fields.

Israeli gas production reached almost 20 Bcm in 2021, according to energy ministry data.

Lebanon is banking on finding gas in the East Mediterranean to help ease its ongoing energy crisis, which sees the country forced to endure rolling blackouts.

Previous well

TotalEnergies is the operator of Block 9 with a 60% stake alongside Eni with 40%. Russia's Novatek was also previously part of the consortium but was reported to have exited the venture in October.

TotalEnergies, Eni and Novatek were awarded Lebanon's first offshore exploration licenses in 2018 for Blocks 4 and 9.

The consortium launched and completed its first well offshore Lebanon at the start of 2020 but in April that year it reported that it had failed to make a commercial discovery.

The southern edges of Lebanon's Block 8, 9 and 10 extend into the previously disputed area with Israel.

Israel and Lebanon on Oct. 11 first reached a draft agreement to settle the long-standing maritime border dispute.

The resolution of the dispute appears to have cleared up any concerns over developments and new exploration in the gas-rich East Mediterranean in waters offshore Israel and Lebanon.

The dispute -- which was mediated by US energy envoy Amos Hochstein -- saw both sides lay claim to parts of the East Mediterranean.

Lebanon in 2021 expanded its maritime claims to include part of the Energean-operated Karish field license area offshore Israel.

Karish became the third major producing field in Israeli waters last month and is expected to ramp up to produce 6.5 Bcm/year in 2023.

Israel has also agreed with the European Commission and Egypt a preliminary deal to supply Israeli gas via Egypt's LNG production facilities to Europe as the EU eyes alternatives to Russian gas.

It comes as European gas prices remain at sustained highs. Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the Dutch TTF month-ahead price at an all-time high of Eur319.98/MWh on Aug. 26. It was last assessed on Nov. 14 at Eur114.83/MWh