Jumblatt praises reactivation of Lebanon’s oil and gas issue

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt praised  on Saturday the reactivation  Lebanon’s oil and gas issue , after a dispute  between the Free Patriotic Movement and the AMAL Movement was reportedly resolved  a day earlier.

“It seems that the oil file which has been pending for years will finally be tackled,” said Jumblatt via his Twitter account.

But the dispute between FPM and Amal was reportedly settled back in Dec  2014 , according to a report by Lebanon oil and gas dated Dec 27, 2014 .

The two sides agreed  back in 2014 to issue contracts over the oil fields adjacent to the Israeli blocks after the speaker had warned that the neighboring state could exploit Lebanon’s offshore wealth.

Jumblatt did not reveal this time anything about the  FPM and Amal   dispute and deal reached.

Israel  started  exploration  several years ago and so has  has Cyprus and even Syria, in spite of its conflict according to the report

Israel will also soon start exporting gas to Turkey according to a report by the Turkish daily Harriyet

Lebanon and Israel are  also still bickering over a zone that consists of about 854 square kilometers and suspected energy reserves that could generate billions of dollars.

Lebanon  argues that a maritime map it submitted to the U.N. is in line with an armistice accord drawn up in 1949, an agreement which is not contested by Israel.

In March 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 34.5 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas in the Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean, which includes the territorial waters of Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Cyprus.

In August 2014, the government postponed for the fifth time the first round of licensing for gas exploration over a political dispute.

According to experts “Lebanon badly needs the oil and gas revenue because of its huge public debt but the Lebanese politicians could not be trusted to deal with this  issue in a transparent manner . Most of the money could end end up in the pockets of the politicians like everything else the experts are saying .Everyone of these politicians  is looking for his own share just like they did and still doing in the  case of the garbage issue.  It is much better for the future  Lebanese generations if the oil remains underground  until such a time  when decent politicians start running the country.  “