The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Total, one of the three consortium companies which will explore for gas off the Lebanese coast, has invited Lebanese companies to bid for a logistic base from Beirut port and other services for the oil platforms, according to the Lebanese Petroleum Administration website.
The announcement seemed in preparation for the offshore gas exploration which is supposed to start in 2019.
In February 2018, Lebanon signed its first offshore oil and gas exploration and production agreements for blocks 4 and 9.
The government had approved two bids by an international consortium of energy companies, comprising France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
The six-member LPA team, whose six-year term expired on Dec. 6, 2018, is currently in a roadshow tour to encourage other international oil firms to take part in new tenders for the remaining blocks.
The current board will resume a caretaker role joining the country’s government in this status.
“Total is providing the opportunity for Lebanese companies to express their interest to participate in the screening exercise. The companies who pass the screening exercise will be able to participate in Call for Tender[s] for the performance of services and provision of goods in relation to the petroleum activities,” the company’s announcement said.
It stressed that the interested parties must be Lebanese individuals or a company that is majority-owned or controlled by Lebanese nationals; and must have the ability to properly perform the services described in the relevant Call for Tender description.
“This ability must be demonstrated through experience, quality, timely performance, compliance and other criteria as described in the Questionnaire. Accordingly, the Potential Tenderer must be able to perform by itself the major part of the required services,” the announcement said.
The first tender involves the construction of an onshore logistics base facilities and storage placed inside Beirut port that would support the project (5,000 square meters of yard, 500 square meters of covered warehouse and 100 square meters of chemical storage area).
The second tender involves the provision of marine gas oil services.
The third tender is related to the provision of support vessel services from Beirut Port.
The fourth and last tender involves the supply of two multi engine helicopters equipped for offshore.
Lebanon is pinning high hopes on the discovery of substantial amount of gas in the future.
But LPA official and oil experts stress that it will take at least five years until the companies start extracting gas off the Lebanese coast.
Caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, estimated eight years ago that Lebanon may have a gas reserve of nearly 99 trillion cubic feet.
But most oil companies declined to give any estimation on the potential gas reserves.
In May 2018, the Cabinet approved the recommendation of the LPA to prepare for Lebanon’s second offshore licensing round.