In an interview on Radio Sawt el-Mada on November 17, Energy Minister Gebran Bassil indicated that Lebanon enjoys vast resources that exceed those of Cyprus and Israel and qualified past negligence of such a wealth as “unfair” and “irresponsible”. He assured that work is ongoing and results will start to emerge at a later stage. Next steps: adoption of decrees (relative to dividing the exploration area into blocks; adopting health & safety measures; organizing taxation and revenue management; and dealing with company management), organization of the first licensing round and the conclusion of agreements with international companies. He referred to the rotation at the top of the Petroleum Administration as a major achievement that will ease sectarianism.
