Lebanon delays oil & gas tender, breaks with Gebran Bassil’s past policies | MESP

Lebanon delays oil & gas tender, breaks with Gebran Bassil’s past policies

AUGUST 8, 2014 in LEBANON, LEBANON - OIL & GAS UPDATES, OIL & GAS

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Energy Minister Arthur Nazarian announced on August 08 that the deadline to submit bids in Lebanon’s first licensing round has been postponed from August 14, 2014 until “a maximum of six months from the date of the adoption” of the missing decrees. The tender has been repeatedly delayed due to the absence of two decrees, one defining offshore blocks and their coordinates and another defining the terms of the model exploration and production agreement.

Nazarian’s decision, most likely recommended by the Petroleum Administration, could be perceived as a break with past policies. Former Energy Minister Gebran Bassil’s dynamism and determination to meet deadlines – although commendable in many cases – have pushed him to officially launch the first licensing round in May 2013 despite the absence of those two decrees. The soundness of this decision has been questioned since. Frequent power vacuums within the executive branch (the country was run by a caretaker cabinet with limited powers for almost a year, from March 2013 until February 2014, and has been without a President since May 25, 2014) made it difficult to approve the two decrees. This has forced Lebanon to postpone the tender five times in less than a year, attracting mostly negative comments and reactions from analysts, industry stakeholders and media with each postponement.

And with each postponement, the inevitable question: Are companies losing interest? Interest in the exploitation of Lebanon’s potentially significant offshore resources is high, but with today’s decision to delay the tender until the decrees are approved, attention must be redirected to Lebanese authorities and their own determination (or lack thereof) to proceed with the tender. 

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Link to source: http://www.mestrategicperspectives.com/2014/08/08/lebanon-delays-oil-gas-tender-breaks-with-gebran-bassils-past-policies/#.U_SBQU0hbgE.twitter

Report: Turkey forbids completion of gas deal with Israel until peace with Gaza achieved | Jerusalem Post

Report: Turkey forbids completion of gas deal with Israel until peace with Gaza achieved

By SHARON UDASIN

08/06/2014 03:09

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Opposition MP in Ankara: Both our governments are missing out on economic, peace opportunities.

TANER YILDIZ. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Natural gas export from Israel’s Leviathan reservoir to Turkey will remain impossible as long as the Israel-Gaza conflict persists, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said on Monday.

Only after a permanent cease-fire has been declared and stability returns to the region could the minister even consider discussing the matter, reported Turkey’s English newspaper, Hurriyet Daily News.

Calling for “an end to the cruelty in Palestine,” Yıldız said that his country’s “door will be closed,” until calm has been attained, the newspaper added.

“If we build a natural gas pipeline from Israel or the eastern Mediterranean under these circumstances, the blood of innocent infants and mothers, not natural gas, would flow through it,” Yıldız said, according to the Hurriyet report.

Yıldız is a member of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party, of which Prime Minister Recep Erdogan serves as chairman.

The 621-billion cubic meter Leviathan gas reservoir, located about 130 km. west of Haifa, is expected to begin flowing in 2017. Leviathan’s smaller, 282-b.cu.m. neighbor to its east, Tamar, began generating gas for the Israeli domestic market in March 2013.

While the Israeli government approved an export policy in June 2013, capping exports to 40 percent, the question still remains to whom the reservoir’s developers will be selling the gas – aside from small agreements with Jordanian Dead Sea factories and a future Palestinian power plant.

Both Cyprus and Turkey, the latter of which does not recognize the former’s sovereignty over the entire Cypriot island, have courted Israel – Cyprus through liquefied natural gas (LNG) export options and Turkey through a pipeline.

Meanwhile, the Leviathan developers have also signed letters of intent to potentially make use of abandoned LNG facilities in Egypt.

In response to Yıldız’s announcement, Turkish opposition party member Dr. Aykan Erdemir told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that a Turkish-Israeli pipeline “can only result from constructive thinking and win-win mentality on both ends of the project.”

“It is a pity to witness that Turkish and Israeli governments are locked in self-destructive thinking and lose-lose mentality,” said Erdemir, a member of the Turkish parliament in the Republican People’s Party.

“Both governments are not only missing out on economic opportunities but also the opportunity to build greater interdependence and sustainable peace,” he said. “It seems that it will require a new generation of politicians to overcome short-sighted populism and entrenched bigotry in the Eastern Mediterranean.”

Erdemir had previously spoken with the Post on the sidelines of a Hebrew University conference on natural gas in November, during which he expressed the idea of a “peace pipeline” that would connect the gas and infrastructure of Israel, Turkey and Cyprus.

Dr. Amit Mor, CEO of Eco Energy, said that while the option of exporting Israeli gas to Turkey should not be ruled out, LNG export schemes through Egypt and other options, such as floating LNG (FLNG) off Israel’s own shores, should be promoted.

“Export of Israeli gas to Turkey is a most economically viable project for both countries,” Mor told the Post.

“Nevertheless, restoration of the bilateral diplomatic relations and both government approvals are preconditions for the materialization of the project.”

Gina Cohen, a consultant in Israel's natural gas industry who also lectures at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Natural Gas and Petroleum Engineering Graduate Study Program, likewise emphasized the complexity of the situation, due to “the triangle of countries that would be involved with this project.”

“However, gas deals are often made between countries that have complex relationships, and so let us hope that reality and emotions cool down soon and that business relationships based on regional pipeline gas deals can help somewhat to reestablish the calm we all yearn for,” Cohen said. 


Link to source: http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Report-Turkey-forbids-completion-of-gas-deal-with-Israel-until-peace-with-Gaza-achieved-370192

Possible Delek pull back over interim gas supply | Cyprus Mail

August 6, 2014 

Leviathan gas field

By Elias Hazou

ISRAEL’S Delek group, a strong contender for supplying Cyprus with natural gas, may now have to take a backseat to other bidders due to complications in its Israel operations.

The tender put out by Cyprus’ Natural Gas Public Company (DEFA) calls for the supply of between 0.7 and 0.95 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually to the Cypriot market through two delivery routes.

One route will begin supplying gas in early 2016 and the other no later than the second half of 2017.
Delek proposed the construction of a pipeline from the neighbouring Leviathan field to Cyprus.

But Noble Energy, Delek’s partner in Leviathan, announced recently it will delay taking the final decision on developing the field.

Noble had been expected to announce its development plan for Leviathan in September, with the date now pushed back for an indeterminate amount of time. Under the previous timetable, Leviathan was believed to be coming online in 2017.

The delay means that Leviathan gas will likely not be available by the time Cyprus expects deliveries – potentially throwing into question Delek’s whole bid.

Earlier this month, DEFA announced it had finished assessing the commercial and financial proposals submitted to it, and would commence direct negotiations with “a number of bidders.”

Reports say that four bidders are still in the running: Dutch energy firm Vitol; Greek conglomerate M&M made up of the Mytilineos & Vardinoyiannis (Motor Oil) groups in cooperation with Dutch giant Trafigura;
a conglomerate under ‘Socar’ – the state liquefied gas company of Azerbaijan; and Delek.

Reports say that the prices quoted to DEFA are higher than those desired, but that there is a window for bringing them down during the negotiations.

Cypriot authorities are understood to have set a purchase target of $12 per million BTU. The offers submitted by the bidders reportedly hover around $13 or $13.5 per million BTU.

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