Lebanon's first ever well comes up dry

A consortium of Total, Italy's Eni and Russia's Novatek has failed to find commercial oil and gas at its first well in Lebanon's offshore block 4, according to local sources.

Drilling at the Byblos-1 well — Lebanon's first ever — began in late February, around two months later than initially planned, because of problems affecting the availability of the Tungsten Explorer drillship.

The Lebanese government said that this first drilling phase would last 60 days. But sources say it has now ended with little sign of the oil or gas resources that Lebanon hoped could help it join the ranks of east Mediterranean countries with offshore hydrocarbon reserves.

Byblos-1 indicated the presence of small volumes of gas, but not enough to make it commercially viable as a stand-alone project, the local sources said.

Lebanese energy minister Raymond Ghajar is due to announce the results of the drilling this afternoon.

The consortium had initially aimed to begin drilling at at block 4 in December or early January and to follow this up with a second well in block 9 in the first half of this year.

But the delay at block 4, coupled with the impact of Covid-19 on foreign oil companies' plans, means that the work at block 9 is likely to be pushed back to at least the third or fourth quarter.

Lebanon had previously expected to start importing LNG by early 2020, but its plans to install a floating storage and regasification unit have stalled.

By Nader Itayim

source: Argus Media